Families of victims killed by police call on Quebec to increase financial assistance for coroner's inquiries
Five years after his death, Koray Celik's family is still fighting for justice
In March 2017, Celik, 28, was intoxicated and in crisis at the family home in Île Bizard.
His parents called police to calm him down. But as police tried to restrain him, the family said the officers beat and choked him.
He had a heart attack and died. In the fall, a coroner’s inquiry will look into his death.
"We are direct witnesses of the death of our son," said Celik's father, Cesur Celik.
"We want to participate in this inquiry, but there’s a problem. It is financially very expensive."
The Quebec Civil Liberties Union is calling on the government to do more to help families of victims who die at the hands of police. They say the families don't get enough money to properly represent themselves at coroner's inquiries.
It can cost tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to properly prepare for a coroner’s inquiry. Lawyers often have to pore over hundreds of pages of evidence, consult expert witnesses, and prepare witnesses for cross examinations.
But the government caps legal fees for victims families at $20,000.
"It’s clearly not enough," said Alexandre Popovic, a spokesperson for the advocacy group Coalition Against Police Repression and Abuse.
"Those police officers, when they are represented by a lawyer, it costs them a lot more."
Civil liberties groups say an access-to-information request revealed the city paid more than $280,000 in legal fees for officers in the coroner’s inquiry into the death of Pierre Coriolan, who was shot and killed by police in 2017 after they responded to a disturbance call at his home.
"If we have interested parties that have weaker representation, the police is going to triumph, it’s going to be their version all over the news, but is it the truth?" said Popovic.
Pointing to provinces like Ontario and Quebec, which pay five times more, Popovic is calling on Quebec to change the funding model so families like the Celiks can get answers to questions that continue to haunt them.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in U.S. if legal options fail, Reuters sources say
TikTok owner ByteDance would prefer to shut down its loss-making app rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the U.S., four sources said.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Here's why Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next
Here's what you need to know about why movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction was thrown out and what happens next.
Improve balance and build core strength with this exercise
When it comes to cardiovascular fitness, you may tend to focus on activities that move you forward, such as walking, running and cycling.
Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.