Posted at 5:00 am
“If it was someone thinner than me, they would be dead,” claims an inmate at Bordeaux prison. He says he was beaten, stripped, pepper sprayed and locked in a cell last summer. This denunciation coincides with an explosion of complaints related to the use of pepper spray in prisons with the Public Protector in 2022, La Presse learned.
Tariq*, 24, was serving a weekend sentence at the Montreal Detention Center — commonly known as Bordeaux Prison — when he suffered treatment that amounted to “torture,” he describes.
The young man was in prison for obstructing police work.
La Presse granted Tariq anonymity as he could be jailed again and feared reprisals.
Complaints related to the use of pepper spray with the Quebec Ombudsman have exploded over the past year, according to La Presse. In 2021-2022, 14 such complaints were deemed substantiated by the organization. That’s more than the total number of complaints received annually for this reason since 2017.
Last year, 4 of the 14 complaints lodged involved Bordeaux prison.
The Quebec Ombudsman was unable to explain this meteoric rise or grant La Presse an interview on the subject.
A “torture” of several minutes
Tariq decided to speak in Bordeaux following the death of Nicous d’Andre Spring on Christmas Eve. While illegally detained, this young man lost his life after being subjected to physical assaults by correctional officers, including the use of pepper spray. A public inquiry has been launched.
Tariq claims to have undergone similar treatment: “I weigh 240 pounds but if it had been anyone thinner they would have died. »
On Wednesday, July 27, 2022, Tariq said he went to jail for his weekly detention.
He would then have been subjected to an intervention led by several prison officers. His head was reportedly hit on the ground. The duty sergeant would have pressed his knee noticeably against Tariq’s neck.
The young man would have screamed during the five or six minutes of “torture” that the procedure would have lasted.
Nearby, a fellow inmate that La Presse spoke to heard the screams. “It really surprised me, it didn’t make sense, it was ridiculous, says this witness. It’s not human to do that. Afterward, they dragged him, handcuffed him, and he could not walk much. »
left to their own devices
Transferred to solitary confinement, Tariq would then have been ordered to undress, which he did without resistance. “I said, ‘Don’t hurt me, tell me what you want and I’ll do it!’ »
Officers allegedly hit him, frisked him, pushed him against a wall and held his hair while they pepper-sprayed him, he said.
Tariq would then have been left naked in his cell with no access to a decontamination shower.
They left me there like a burning dog. I couldn’t open my eyes anymore, I couldn’t hear anything.
Tarik*
“After each use of the incendiary agent, measures must be taken to decontaminate people and places,” the Ministry of Public Security (MSP) said via email.
These measures sometimes fall short, the Quebec Ombudsman noted in its December 1, 2022 annual report. »
hospitalization
La Presse received Tariq’s consultation report on the evening of the operation at Montreal’s Sacré Coeur Hospital. We also spoke to two of his acquaintances who saw him in the hospital and to whom he then gave an account of what happened that matches the one he gave to La Presse.
According to the medical report, Tariq presented to the emergency room with red eyes, a sprained knee and bruises.
“He was really panicking,” says his attorney Morgane Laloum. I had never seen him like this and I’ve represented him for quite some time. He was abused, humiliated. It’s exactly the same situation as the young man who died at Christmas. »
The Ministry of Public Security “cannot provide any information about this [cette] precise intervention.
Tariq never returned to prison to complete his sentence. “It’s impossible for me to go there,” he says. Put me where you want, give me a longer sentence, but don’t take me to Bordeaux. I don’t want to die in Bordeaux. »
* Fictional first names
Illegal detentions have been on the rise in Quebec since the pandemic
Illegal detentions have been increasing proportionately in Quebec since 2020, according to Ministry of Public Security (MSP) data obtained by La Presse. In 2022, a record-breaking person was detained 14 days after receiving his or her release order, reports the MSP. From April 1 to December 31, 2022, 63 people were unlawfully detained in Quebec, accounting for 0.29% of all prison incarcerations in the province. This rate was 0.19% in 2017-2018, 0.17% the following year and 0.16% the following year.
The pandemic appears to have exacerbated the problem. In 2020-2021, Quebec had 71 cases of illegal detention, or 0.32% of incarcerations. In Bordeaux prison, this rate is 0.49%. “There is clearly a problem in detention centers with a glaring understaffing and increasingly violent measures against detainees,” said lawyer Morgane Laloum. These prison conditions are no match for a democracy. »