Fredy Villanueva, 18, and what the coroner asked of us

On August 9, 2008, near the Henri-Bourassa arena in Montréal-Nord, SPVM officers approached a group of young people who were playing dice. Fredy Villanueva, 18, was shot and killed; two other young people were wounded. The next day, a riot broke out in the neighbourhood. In December 2008, the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions announced that no charges would be laid against the officer.

The coroner's public inquiry, long interrupted, concluded in December 2013. Coroner André Perreault found that the evidence did not establish that Fredy was trying to disarm an officer. He noted that several of the people involved made mistakes, some for lack of training, and that the investigation into his death was conducted in a way that made the truth harder to establish.

Among other things, he recommended reviewing the choice of service weapons, better training officers in the use of force, in working with diverse communities and in distinguishing between criminal, racial and social profiling, and explaining to high school students their rights and obligations when they are stopped.

No report gives a son back to his mother. But a coroner's recommendations are a collective promise: that a teenager's death should serve to protect those who come after. Families, Montréal-Nord organizations and rights advocates have carried this memory for years. What remains is to check, recommendation by recommendation, what has really changed.