Black activists join Montreal protest

Demonstrators take to streets in response to fatal shooting of 58-year-old man by police

MONTREAL— Police should have no role in responding to mental-health crises, activist groups said in response to last week’s police shooting of a Montreal man.

About 200 people, including representatives from the Montreal and Toronto chapters of Black Lives Matter, attended a protest Sunday in front of the apartment where Pierre Coriolan was shot.

They then marched through down- town, where photos posted on social media showed them climbing onto a stage at Montreal’s International Jazz Festival.

Quebec’s police watchdog says they believe Coriolan, 58, was distressed and holding a screwdriver in each hand when police arrived at his apartment last Tuesday.

According to the watchdog’s account, police first used a Taser and rubber bullets on Coriolan but eventually drew their service weapons when those methods failed to subdue him.

Coriolan died in a hospital after he was struck by several bullets.

“Police should not be the first to intervene in mental-health crises,” a BLM spokesperson, Venetta Gordon, told the cheering group at the vigil.

Following the vigil, the black-clad protesters marched downtown while chanting “Black lives matter!” They also carried signs bearing the names of people who have died following police interventions.

Montreal police said there were no arrests.

On Sunday, the organizers of the Montreal protest released a list of demands that includes government funding for Black-specific mentalhealth services.

They also called for the names of the officers who shot Coriolan be released.