Laval | “The policeman jumped on me”

Woman was reportedly tackled to the ground after asking officer to put on a mask

Nicolas Berube
Press

A Laval woman says that a Laval police officer “jumped on her” at her home last summer after she asked him to put on a mask during an intervention that she herself had requested.

At around 4:30 am on August 15, says Monique Mercier, she felt uneasy and dialed 911. Shortly after, police and paramedics arrived in her apartment on Boulevard des Laurentides, in Laval. She then reportedly informed them that her health had improved and that she no longer needed help, but the first responders still wanted to come in to “make sure everything was okay”.

Four police officers and two paramedics were then present in his kitchen. All wore a blue intervention mask, except for one policeman, who had his face uncovered, she recalls.

M^me Mercier, 56, who has an autoimmune disease and suffers from fibromyalgia, says he asked the police to put on a mask. “I even handed him a box of new masks, but he said he didn’t want them. Until then it was polite, even honeyed, but it has become off-putting. ”

Faced with this refusal, M^me Mercier says he went to get his cell phone and announced his intention to film the intervention.

The police officer then put his hands behind his back to handcuff him. “I’m not 30 anymore, to be stirred like that, I’m not able anymore. I still have a hard time talking about it. […] I was screaming, it hurt. I have arthritis in my shoulders, and the pain was severe. He put the handcuffs on so tight that I still have marks on my wrists today, four months later. It hurt so much that I lost track of what happened next. ”

M^me Mercier explains having come to his senses in the ambulance. She was very restless at the time and had difficulty breathing. She had no shoes, nor her wallet, nor her phone. According to the automatic recording made in the ambulance by Urgences-santé, and which she was able to obtain, she keeps repeating: “Why did he jump on me? ”

” A fixation ”

In the report drawn up by the police officer, which she was able to obtain under the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information and that we have been able to consult, it is written that M^me Mercier “was talking disjointed” when the first responders arrived at her home. She is “fixated” on the police officer, she “becomes more and more aggressive” and “wants him out of his apartment”, we read.

The policeman notes that M^me Mercier has an “advanced blood alcohol level” and that there are scissors and knives in the kitchen of the “unsanitary” apartment. The policeman said he “brought her to the ground quietly for our safety and his”.

The policeman invoked Law P-38 to order that Mr.^me Mercier be sent to the emergency room. This law gives exceptional powers to the police when they observe that a person “presents a serious and imminent danger to himself or to others”.

M^me Mercier claims that much of the information in the report is inaccurate.

“The policeman did not write a word on the question of the mask and my intention to film it,” she said. He’s trying to make me look crazy in his report to justify my being forced to hospital. ”

She notes that, contrary to what is written, the scissors and knives were stored in the drawers and were not visible or accessible. She adds that her apartment is “small”, but is “not unsanitary”. “And I was far from drunk, as he claims. I had had two glasses of wine, ”she says.

The spokesperson for the Laval Police Department, Sergeant Geneviève Major, explains that “in light of the information we have today, the intervention was carried out according to good police procedures. We encourage M^me Mercier to contact us if she wishes to discuss her situation or file a complaint ”.

M^me Major notes that the policy for police officers is to wear a mask when inside.

M^me Major spoke to the police officer who performed the intervention. “He said that he always wore his mask and that maybe that day, he wore it badly, that he had it under his nose or that he had fallen during the operation”, a- she asserted.

The policeman maintains that M^me Mercier was uncooperative as she was handcuffed and officers had to lift and carry her, which could have left marks on her skin.

This is the publication in Press last week of the story of a Montrealer who claimed that a police officer had become violent towards him after he asked him to wear a mask during an arrest which prompted Mr.^me Mercier to recount his misadventure. She filed an ethics complaint against the police officer. M^me Mercier says he has lived with a feeling of anguish since August 15. “I no longer want a police officer to enter my house. It’s over, ”she said.

Wearing the mask

Antoine Leclerc-Loiselle, public relations advisor at the Commission des normes, de l’énergie, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), affirms that “wearing a mask continuously is recommended rather than compulsory in ‘inside and out’ for workers, including police officers.

As for work outdoors, wearing a quality mask is required “if interactions within one meter with others are unavoidable”.

Earlier this year, the Quebec government recalled that it is allowed to film police interventions.

“Yes, citizens who think they are witnesses to inappropriate gestures [de la part de policiers] are entirely within their right to film them, ”said the Minister responsible for the Fight against Racism, Benoit Charette.