Montreal-area mother calls out Mascouche police for using a taser on her autistic Black teenage son

A mother of a Black non-verbal autistic teen in Terrebonne, about 30 kilometers north-east of Montreal, is denouncing a police intervention that saw police use a taser on her son.

“I was devastated, I couldn’t even talk,” said Marie Ismé about the events with her 18-year-old son Brandon.

He was placed in a rehabilitation center four days a week and on Wednesday morning, Nov. 9, for reasons still unexplained, Brandon ran away twice, leaving the Centre de réadaptation La Myriade. They in turn called the police. Two Mascouche police officers allegedly arrested him in a residential area and used a taser to detain him. He was then transported to the hospital.

CityNews reviewed a video of the young man being put into an ambulance and having the taser barbs removed.

“I would have understood if he was running towards the cops, if they felt threatened, but he wasn’t. The only thing they had to do was run after him, continue running.”

His mother is denouncing the event as completely unjustified and an abusive use of the taser, which she says could jeopardize her son’s health and safety. She explains that she’s always afraid that one day her son will be shot by the police because he is Black, autistic and non-verbal.

Mascouche Police Chief Martin St-Pierre. (Credit: CityNews / Alyssia Rubertucci)

At a press conference outside the Mascouche police station, chief Martin St-Pierre, said that it’s too early to know why the taser was used, but that the case needs to be analyzed further.

He added: “We intervene often for this individual, since the beginning of the year. Police officers know him by his first name, it’s hard to communicate with him. But the file will be analyzed, that’s for sure.”

“They found him when he had entered a home. He entered homes three times. We found him and returned him. Then he fled again and we found him in another home. Officers intervened and we chased after him. He hid in another home. We started chasing him and used the taser to subdue him so we could return him back to the centre.”

“Police departments and officers need to be better trained in dealing with people with autism and other developmental needs – and review the use of tasers and other weapons,” said Fo Niemi of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), who held a press conference with Brandon and his mother on Thursday morning.

CityNews also reached out to the local health authority, Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de Lanaudière, in charge of the Centre de réadaptation La Myriade, for comment. “As a follow-up to the situation described, we invite you to contact the police. On our side, we are in contact with the user’s mother.”

(CREDIT: Alyssia Rubertucci/CityNews)

“I don’t want that to happen another time to anyone, not just to my son, not even just to autistic people, but not to anyone dealing with mental illness,” said Marie.

She is now planning on taking the case to the police ethics commissioner.

“My biggest fear is that, what if one day it’s not the taser gun, they take the first weapon they have in their hand and shoot him. It’s really scary for real. And I really wonder, and I’m sorry to say, but if it were a white kid, would they have reacted the same way yesterday.”

Allegations of systemic discrimination

Since 2019, Ismé and her son have had a strained relationship with the school and health authorities in Terrebonne because, she says, of the discriminatory treatment and lack of accommodation on their part towards her son.

Brandon was first kicked out of a special school for young children living with a profound intellectual disability when he was only 14. Since then, he has repeatedly been sent home and as a result has missed a lot of school. Between December of 2018 and May of 2021, she says Brandon attended school for a total of only 90 hours compared to a regular attendance of 700 hours per year school.

MORE: Mother accuses Quebec special needs school of discrimination

In early 2020, CRARR filed a complaint of systemic discrimination in their name against the local school service in the region, with the Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission. Despite the urgency of the situation, they say the investigation has dragged on for two years.