Families decry ‘secretive’ probes into Quebec police shootings
Tracy Wing will never see her only son again.
Whether it is setting one less place at the dinner table or riding with one fewer passenger in the family car, that reality manifests itself through the void left in Riley Fairholm’s place.
“It was always the three of us in the car, Riley, his sister and me,” said Wing. “I used to say I’m like the baloney in our little sandwich. Well, now we’re missing a piece of that ... It takes awhile to sink in but him not being in the house every day, it makes it real.”
Fairholm, 17, was shot to death by police in Knowlton last July.
Wing never had a reason to distrust the police or Quebec’s judicial system. As a first responder, she worked closely with law enforcement and saw first-hand how challenging their work can be.
But in the wake of her son’s death, Wing has struggled to get the most basic answers about his final moments; about whether he suffered, what he may have told officers, what compelled them to pull the trigger and put an end to the young man’s life.
That’s why Wing joined dozens of protesters Monday at the ninth annual vigil to commemorate victims of police shootings.
The vigil was held outside the union that represents Montreal’s police.
While many decried allegations of racial profiling and systemic abuse, they all demanded a more transparent process of investigating police shootings.
In Fairholm’s case, officers were responding to a 911 call about a young man walking along the side of Route 104, wielding what appeared to be a handgun.
Shortly after officers arrived, the 17-year-old was gunned down. He reportedly had a pellet gun in his hand and, earlier that evening, showed signs of suicidal ideation.
Quebec’s Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes is looking into Fairholm’s death. But if the BEI’s goal is to provide civilian oversight of the judicial system and shed a light on the young man’s final moments, Wing says they are failing.
“The process is so secretive. I’m having such a hard time deciphering what’s real and what’s not real,” said Wing.
“I don’t even know if the police officer (who shot Riley) is patrolling the streets, the BEI aren’t even allowed to know.”
On Monday, Bridget Tolley said the police investigation into her mother Gladys’s death was a painful, dehumanizing experience.
Gladys was struck and killed by a Sûreté du Québec patrol car while walking by a country road near Maniwaki in 2001.
“The coroner’s report said the family identified the body, but that’s not true, we were never even able to see her body,” said Tolley. “We had two witnesses on the scene, their statements were never taken.
“My mother is not a drunken Indian woman like the police force says ... she was a kind, gentle, loving grandmother.”
It was cases like Tolley’s and repeated claims of pro-police bias in internal investigations that led the provincial government to create the BEI.
The overwhelming majority of the 59 cases the BEI has submitted to Quebec’s crown prosecutors haven’t resulted in criminal charges. On Monday, Erma Gibbs fought back tears but ultimately let out a pained scream as she recounted her son Nicholas’s death.
“My son left behind three children ... I have to care for them now,” said Gibbs. “One is four, another one is five and there’s an eightmonth-old baby at home. What am I going to say to these kids when they get older?”
Nicholas Gibbs, 23, was shot by officers in Notre-Dame-de- Grâce after allegedly threatening them with a knife.
Officers had been called to a street corner in N.D.G. that day in response to reports of a fight between two men. Police say they tried to subdue Nicholas with a Taser and, after that failed, used lethal force on the man.
The BEI is investigating the shooting.
Nicholas’s friends say that — despite past brushes with the law — he was a quiet, reserved man who struggled with mental illness and had been a victim of repeated racial profiling.
“I know he needed help, they could have talked him out of it,” said Gibbs. “Policemen have bad mentality with my son, he was being harassed, he was too scared to leave the house.
“Every day I think about my son, I say ‘Oh my God, my only son!’ ... I’m not saying all the policemen are bad, I know they have families too. But why? They didn’t have to kill him.”