The family of Jean René Junior Olivier, shot dead by police in Repentigny in 2021, denounces the recent decision of the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) not to file criminal charges against the police officers involved.
In the middle of Black History Month, the family of Jean René Junior Olivier expressed Friday their feelings of injustice, sadness, great disappointment and lack of confidence in the City of Repentigny.
This public release follows the DPCP’s decision the day before not to file criminal charges against the police officers involved in the case. 1er August 2021, Jean René Junior Olivier, a 38-year-old black man, was shot dead by police officers after his mother called the emergency services because of her son’s psychologically unstable state.
“I will be forever devastated by the loss of my son,” said the mother of the deceased, Marie-Mireille Bence, in a press release released on Friday. “No one will ever be held responsible for the untimely death of my child,” she denounces.
Loss of sense of trust
The family also believes that this decision further undermines the sense of trust black people have in the City of Repentigny.
Making this decision expressly during Black History Month is interpreted as a message that black lives are not taken seriously in Quebec.
Marie-Mireille Bence, mother of Jean René Junior Olivier
“We find that in the majority of cases where black people are killed by the police, there are no charges brought against the police officers involved, she also observes. We believe it is important to take steps to ensure that Black and Indigenous people are treated fairly by the police and that their rights are respected. »
Remember that issues of racial profiling have made headlines many times in Repentigny in recent years.
In 2020, a group of nine black young people had received statements of offense1 totaling $11,500 for violating sanitary measures on a basketball court. The same evening, on the same field, a group of young whites had received a warning.
The following year, a report showed that black people were almost three times more likely2 than white people from being arrested by the police department of the City of Repentigny.
Last summer, a black man won his case3 before the Human Rights Tribunal for being the victim of profiling after being arrested while driving a luxury vehicle.
The concept of imminent danger
Regarding the case of the death of Mr. Olivier, the DPCP concluded Thursday that “the police intervention was legal and was mainly based on the duty imposed on the police to ensure, from the first moments until the end of the sequence fire, the safety of the citizens under their protection as well as their own safety”.
But according to Max Stanley Bazin, president of the League of Blacks of Quebec, “the notion of imminent danger is extremely variable according to the color of the skin”.
In his view, the tragic end of Mr. Olivier is linked to issues of systemic discrimination and racial profiling. “It has not escaped the Ligue des Noirs du Québec that there is a difference in treatment concerning black people in crisis versus white people in crisis, he indicated to The Press in writing.
In Quebec, it’s not complicated, if you’re black, you don’t have the right to be in crisis and sick, because if you are, your life is in danger, unless by chance the policeman is accompanied a person trained to work with people with mental health problems.
Max Stanley Bazin, President of the League of Blacks of Quebec
According to the organization, the finding is clear: “There are two weights, two measures in Quebec, because the survival rate of people from the white majority in the event of a crisis is clearly higher than that of black people. »