Camara's lawyers dispute finding of no racial profiling in wrongful arrest; lawsuit will go ahead

Montreal -

Mamadi Camara’s lawyers insist he’s a victim of racial profiling in his high-profile wrongful arrest last winter, despite a Quebec judge’s report finding otherwise.

They called those findings one-sided and are moving ahead with their lawsuit against police.

Camara was charged with disarming a police officer and attempting to kill him, but police had the wrong man. Camara had been pulled over earlier for using his cellphone while driving.

A new report says police mishandled the investigation. But Camara’s legal team say they want more.

“We wanted a more transparent inquiry with [the] possibility [to] counter-interrogate witnesses, and this is not what happened,” said lawyer Virginie Dufresne Lemire.

“It is closed and not transparent inquiry that happened.”

Anti-racism advocate Fo Niemi, who often advises people with police-related complaints, said the report is “a police version” of what happened.

“Of course we cannot 100-per-cent count this report as a definite version of what happened,” he said.

Camara declined to particate in Dionne’s investigation, a decision his lawyers defended.

“The involvement they were proposing is that only he would be meet for few hours with the judge, and for us this is not enough,” said Dufresne Lemire.

“We want him to be able to participate, know what witnesses are saying, to be able to ask questions.”

They’ll be able to do all that within the process for the lawsuit Camara filed against the city and the police in July.

“What we hope to see in this civil case before the courts will be truth and nothing but the truth, because there’s a lot missing in the report,” said Niemi.

Camara is seeking $1.2 million in damages. No date has been set yet for the case to be heard.