Vol. 80/No. 30 August 15, 2016
Canada: Hundreds protest cop killing
of Somali worker
AND JOHN STEELE
Witnesses reported that after police were called to deal with a disturbance in a nearby coffee shop, they chased Abdi to his apartment building where they pepper-sprayed him and beat him unconscious with their clubs and fists. The Ottawa Citizen reported that a video shows he was left in a pool of blood face down and handcuffed for nearly 10 minutes before paramedics arrived.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital the next day. His relatives say doctors told them Abdi, who had mental health problems, was already dead when he arrived at the trauma center. A short video taken by neighbors after the beating shows Constables Daniel Montsion and Dave Weir kneeling beside Abdi. Their actions are being investigated by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit. Neither has been charged with a crime.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims has called for a thorough investigation while the head of the cop association says Abdi was “assaultive” and his violence had to be contained.
On July 26 over 500 people, the majority Caucasian, turned out for a vigil in a park near where Abdi died. One participant, who asked that his name not be used, said this showed that cop brutality was not limited to the United States. Hundreds marched to an Ottawa police station July 30 chanting, “Black lives matter.”
“Abdirahman Abdi deserves justice. The police should pay the consequences for what they did,” Idil Issa, a Somali woman who said she was speaking for herself, told the crowd of about 150 at a July 28 demonstration in downtown Montreal. She then read condolences to the Abdi family in her maternal language.
A number of speakers at that rally noted the sentencing the same day of Toronto cop James Forcillo to six years in jail. Forcillo was convicted on a charge of attempted murder for his role in the shooting death of Toronto teenager Sammy Yatim in 2013. Forcillo is now out on bail while appealing his conviction.
Related articles:
Refusal to indict cops who killed Idaho rancher is ‘a real cover-up’
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home