Six days for a mistake

On January 28, 2021, an SPVM officer was assaulted in Parc-Extension. Mamadi Camara, a doctoral student and driver with no criminal record, was arrested at the scene, then charged with, among other things, attempted murder. On February 3, after surveillance footage was analyzed, the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions stayed the proceedings. The SPVM, then Mayor Valérie Plante, apologized to him.

Quebec assigned an administrative inquiry to Justice Louis Dionne of the Superior Court. His report, made public on September 3, 2021, found investigative errors that should have allowed Mr. Camara to be released much sooner. It did not find racial profiling, a conclusion disputed by his lawyers. In February 2022, Mr. Camara reached an out-of-court settlement with the City of Montreal, for a confidential amount, with no admission of fault.

Six days is short on the scale of justice. It is an eternity for a man wrongly detained, for his family and for a community that wonders whether it could have been one of its own. The case is a reminder that checking, doubting and correcting in time are part of police work, and that public apologies, when they come, matter.