Report says there was no racial profiling in Mamadi Camara arrest

MONTREAL -

A Quebec judge's report into the wrongful arrest of a Black man earlier this year concludes he was not the victim of racial profiling and that prosecutors and police officers acted reasonably.

Mamadi III Fara Camara spent six days in detention after being wrongfully charged with the attempted murder of a police officer who was allegedly disarmed and attacked with his own service weapon on Jan. 28.

Montreal police ultimately exonerated and apologized to Camara and in late March, arrested another person in connection with the case.

The Quebec government ordered an administrative investigation into the case, led by Quebec Superior Court Justice Louis Dionne.

Dionne concluded in his report released today that the police officer who had initially stopped Camara for a driving violation and those who proceeded with his arrest acted according to the rules.

The report also found no fault in the actions of the Crown prosecutor who authorized charges, saying they had acted according to legal principles and standards based on the information given by investigators.

Dionne, however, said major crimes investigators should have set up a different investigation structure that could have led to a more detailed and quicker analysis of evidence that would have absolved Camara earlier.

The report contains 18 recommendations, including a dozen for the Montreal police, two for the province's police academy and four for the Public Security Department.

In July, Camara and his relatives filed a $1.2-million lawsuit against police and prosecutors, claiming numerous abuses.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 3, 2021.