Thursday July 26, 2018
By Kieran Delamont
Friends and neighbours listen to speeches during a community gathering in Somerset Square Park by the Justice for Abdirahman Coalition. Wayne Cuddington / Postmedia
On the two-year anniversary of Abdirahman Abdi’s death during an
altercation with two Ottawa police officers, it came to light that his
family is suing the police services board, the two officers involved and
police Chief Charles Bordeleau for $1.5 million.
In a lawsuit
filed in civil court at an Ottawa courthouse on July 17, eight members
of Abdi’s family claim they have suffered “negligent infliction of
mental suffering” as the result of Abdi’s death in 2016. They are
seeking $500,000 in punitive damages, as well as various amounts for
each of the family members named in the suit.
The lawsuit became
public Tuesday, the same day members of Abdi’s family, the
Somali-Canadian community and the Hintonburg neighbourhood gathered just
steps away from 55 Hilda St., where he died, to remember and mark his
death with a small “standing together” ceremony.
Abdi died after
Const. Daniel Montsion and Const. David Weir responded to a call about a
man — allegedly Abdi — groping women at a Bridgehead coffee shop. The
lawsuit lays out a chronology of events whereby Abdi was approached by
police, chased from the coffee shop to a nearby apartment building, then
forcefully arrested by police, suffering fatal injuries in the process.In
particular, it alleges that Montsion and Weir are liable for “assault,
battery and use of excessive force,” during the arrest. The lawsuit
claims “the actions of the Defendant Officers on July 24, 2016 …
constituted assault and battery. In addition, the force used by the
Defendant Officers on Mr. Abdi … was excessive. The Defendant Officers
failed to use reasonable means to address the situation.”
It
alleges that the Ottawa Police Services Board had no system of oversight
for incidents such as this. The board, alleges the lawsuit, “failed to
have any system in place by which it would become aware of any and all
instances where it had been determined by a court that either or both of
the Defendant Officers, or any officer, had used excessive force or
violated an individual’s rights.”
It charges that Bordeleau
“failed to ensure that the Defendant Officers were properly trained
and/or provided guidelines with respect to … excessive force.”
Lawyer
Lawrence Greenspon, who is representing the Abdi family in the civil
suit, said the legal action will hopefully provide a recognition of
wrongdoing, apart from the question of criminal responsibility.
“Criminal trial is the state versus Officer Montsion,” Greenspon
said. “The civil action is a very different type of vehicle. The purpose
of the civil action is one, for recognition that what happened to
Abdirahman Abdi was wrong. And two, it’s through the civil action that
we hope to see systemic change within the police force, the police
services board, the chief of police, in the training, and we’re
confident that the civil action is the best way to try to affect that
change.”
Abdirahman Abdi is shown in a family handout photo. HO / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Civil proceedings won’t start until after the criminal
trial is concluded, Greenspon said. With the criminal trial not
scheduled to start until February 2019 — and scheduled for several
months — that means that this case may not proceed until late 2019 or
early 2020 (or even later if a coroner’s inquest is conducted following
the criminal trial).
The Ottawa police declined to comment,
directing all questions to the city’s litigation and labour relations
department. Members of the Abdi family also declined to speak to media.
The
Justice for Abdirahman Coalition also announced on Tuesday that it was
setting up a scholarship in Abdi’s name, called the Abdirahman Abdi
Scholarship for Social Justice. The scholarship is for members of the
black community who are “working towards social justice,” said Ifrah
Yousuf, a member of the coalition. Every year, starting in 2019, they
plan to award $2,500 to a student pursuing post-secondary education.