The B.C. Civil Liberties Association says it will be filing a complaint with the Vancouver Police Department over its officers' treatment and arrest of pro-Palestinian demonstrators last month.
Around 100 of those demonstrators gathered at a section of railway lines in East Vancouver on May 31 to lay 303 sets of children's clothing on the tracks. The group says it was holding vigil for the thousands of Palestinian children who have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its retaliation to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.
The Vancouver Police Department says it moved in to clear the group that afternoon because they had been obstructing the Canadian National Railway lines for several hours. Video posted to social media from scene shows how chaos soon broke out between the two groups, with officers taking numerous people to the ground to handcuff them.
In the end, police arrested 14 people for mischief and obstruction.
VPD Media Relations Officer Tania Visintin told Black Press Media they gave the demonstrators ample time to leave and that "no force would have been required had the protesters just complied." She said the demonstrators were "pushing and shoving" and that their "hostile dynamics " dictated the level of force used by police.
The demonstrators, on the other hand, say the officers were unnecessarily violent and that community members were punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed, choked and strangled. The group says dozens of them left with injuries, including a pregnant woman.
“While all we did was stand, officers did not use any de-escalation," community member Sukhi Gill recalled at a press conference outside the VPD headquarters on Tuesday (June 18).