Quebec police still haven’t received promised mental health training, claim activists

Police response teams are generally the first people you call when there is an issue in need of de-escalation. However, that was the case for 58-year-old Pierre Coriolan.

Coriolan, a Black Montrealer, was shot three times by police and killed in 2017 while under mental health distress. A coroner’s report says officers were not trained for the type of intervention and calls on enhanced training for them – but will it make a difference for racialized communities? Some activists are skeptical.

“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen since the death of Anthony Griffin in 1987 and the death of Marcellus François, the death of Fredy Villanueva, the death of Alain Magloire, and now the death of Pierre Coriolan, is that we’ve seen almost all of this before,” stated Will Prosper, filmmaker and community organizer.

“Most of the calls that the police are receiving are in direct connection with mental health issues. So that should be a priority for Montreal police.

“All these police officers involved in that case, haven’t received training to this day for intervening in mental health issues,” added Prosper.

“If we don’t recognize that this is a massive problem of police killings and police violence, primarily in Canada against people with mental illness and people of colour with mental illness … then we’re not going to solve this,” added Ted Rutland, member of the Anti-Carceral Group and associate professor at Concordia University.

“If we look at the difference between how police respond to these situations and people who are trained to deal with mental illness, it’s night and day.”

In a statement, Montreal police say they’ve implemented a course for de-escalation training for frontline police officers. Their goal is to intervene to resolve situations peacefully while ensuring the safety of all.

“In 2018, the SPVM implemented a course for de-escalation training for frontline police officers. During an intervention, police officers can also count on specialized officers in response to a crisis incident and as a reference.

“The goal is to intervene in such a way as to resolve situations peacefully while ensuring the safety of all. Negotiations with the aim of securing a peaceful surrender continue to be our guideline. In the vast majority of cases, de-escalation techniques make it possible to defuse crisis situations and intervene without resorting to the use of force,” read the statement.

The City of Montreal launched a pilot project last year which allows social intervention workers to assist officers on mental health calls. Still, many say police don’t always turn to these specialized teams when responding to these situations.

“We need people that are specialized to be in these different cases,” Prosper explained. “Police officers should be back up to those people, but there should be social workers first because they understand — more than anybody else — these kinds of calls.”