‘He called me the N-word’: Longueuil mom says abuse complaint against neighbour led to her own arrest
Posted April 27, 2022 3:36 pm.
Last Updated April 27, 2022 6:46 pm.
A Black Montreal-area mother is seeking justice after she says she called police to file a complaint about her neighbour, only to have criminal charges laid against her.
Cendy Kadijia Jeannis says she her son were verbally assaulted by their neighbour with racist and abusive remarks, but she says police did not take her claim seriously or objectively.
“We are in 2022 like police people, they’re supposed to be there to protect us,” said Jeannis. “And I lost all my trust over them because when they came to me, they were ready to arrest me.”
The incident happened in Longueuil on Feb. 25, when Jeannis was returning home from work with her eldest son. She says she asked her neighbour, who was sitting in his car when she arrived, if he could move his vehicle forward to make it easier for her to park and avoid the snow.
What followed were racist remarks and threats of violence, says the mother.
“I was so surprised of the anger of that person,” she said. “Because I only knocked on his window and asked him politely, ‘can you move (your) car? Because I have no space.’”
Longueuil mother Cendy Kadijia Jeannis. (Credit: Cendy Kadijia Jeannis/handout)
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Feeling threatened, Jeannis immediately returned to her car where she called the police for help. The neighbour allegedly then tried to forcefully open her car door, calling her son the N-word, comparing him to a gorilla, and threatening to beat him up.
When police arrived Jeannis says she felt secure, hoping they would arrest the man or file her complaint.
But Jeannis says when officers arrived they allegedly stopped her from filing a complaint, and she was told that if she were to file one she could be arrested.
Longueuil police tells CityNews in a statement that’s simply not true.
“At no time did the police prevent either party from filing a complaint,” said a police spokesperson.
Police say they took complaints from both Jeannis and her neighbour that very night.
“Following those complaints, a woman and a man were placed under arrest, before being released on location,” continued the statement.
But Jeannis says that’s not what happened, and after voicing she was going to the police station to file her own complaint, she says she was charged for threatening her neighbour.
“How can I threaten the guy? I’m the one who called the police. I’m the one that was alone with my kids,” she said.
“He called me the N-word. You don’t care that he tried to break my car door? The only thing you’re telling me, is that ‘if you put a charge, we arrest you.’”
Jeannis has to appear in court for fingerprinting. She was also charged on conditions that if she were to interact or be in the same space as the neighbour, she would be given another criminal charge of breaking those conditions.
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Fo Neimi from the Center For Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) says they are working with Jeannis and intend to file a complaint with the Commission for Human Rights and Youth Rights (CDPDJ) based on “discriminatory acts.”
“This is not just about verbal conduct,” said Niemi. “It’s also about the physical conduct of this man, who threatened with his fist to do some violence towards Miss Janice and to her son.”
Niemi calls it a “test case” for the commission because of the new position it recently adopted of not taking on cases involving only discriminatory comments.
This follows the Supreme Court’s ruling in October in the case of comedian Mike Ward.
A total of 56 files opened following complaints of discriminatory comments deemed admissible before the Ward decision have since been closed.
But the commission tells CityNews: “Comments that target a ground of discrimination … may be the subject of a complaint to the Commission if they are combined with a discriminatory treatment such as denial of a service or accommodation or loss of employment. Comments made in the context of a situation of discriminatory harassment also continue to be admissible by the Commission.”
Niemi says he hopes the commission takes on the case.
“If in light of all those things that happened to miss Janice and her son, the human rights commission refuses to take this case, then we should be very worried about the state of hate crime and hate incidents in Quebec,” said Niemi.
