Red Coalition seeks public inquiry, release of video in Bordeaux jail death

An anti-racism lobby group is calling on the Quebec government to launch an independent public inquiry into the jail death of an illegally detained Black man in Montreal following an altercation with jail guards just before Christmas.

Nicous D’Andre Spring, 21, was illegally detained at Montreal’s Bordeaux jail on Dec. 24 when guards fitted his head with a spit hood and pepper-sprayed him twice. He died later in hospital.

A judge had ordered Spring released from the detention centre the day before, but he and two other inmates were still in custody a day later.

“This family has still not received any adequate information to temporarily subside their anger, frustration, grief and pain due to the loss of Nicous who was a brother, a son and uncle, a friend and a grandson,” said Joel DeBellefeuille, the executive director and founder of Red Coalition.

“Inconceivable and unimaginable that they’re being tormented by this anguish on a daily basis without answers.”

Red Coalition press conference about Nicous D’Andre Spring on Jan. 7, 2023, who died in Bordeaux jail. (Credit: CityNews/Brittany Henriques)

The Red Coalition, a non-profit lobbying organization assisting Spring’s relatives, held a news conference Saturday at which they made a number of demands. They included the call for an inquiry and the release of any relevant detention centre video footage to the family.

“What appears to be a combination of a lack of experience and illegal detention in a prison system that needs major reform,” added DeBellefeuille. “A young Black man lost his life because of clerical flaws and poor judgment.”

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The group is also seeking an independent autopsy and the creation of a citizen oversight board for the province’s correctional facilities.

“Not even better training can change that,” said David Austin, a professor at John Abbot College. “We need to think about what are the processes in place that allow for profiling arrest and detention and that a part of the ongoing systemic structural problem that cannot be solved simply by limited reforms and just suspending people.

“This is not something new but this particular kind of instance here is on some other kind of level.”

Spring’s relatives were initially expected to speak at the news conference Saturday, but elected not to do so on the advice of their attorney.

Earlier this week, the group said it intended to file a complaint with the Quebec ombudsman to get more answers for Spring’s family.

WATCH: Family of Montrealer who died in Bordeaux jail calls for investigation

“There’s rampant systemic discrimination within the federal prison system where Black prisoners make up 9.2 per cent of those that are incarcerated while at the same time they make up only 3.5 percent of the population of Canada,” said DeBellefeuille.

“We feel Nicous fell victim to this type of systemic injustice in the provincial system here in Quebec and we’re calling on an immediate investigation to get to the bottom of it.”