Black woman alleges Montreal police wrongfully detained her after crash caused by stroke

A Black woman is accusing Montreal police of racial profiling after she was arrested under the suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs – when she was actually having a stroke.

Nursing assistant Neslyne Meus told reporters Thursday that she decided to go public with what happened to raise awareness about how Black people are treated by police. She’s calling for better police training, both in recognizing medical emergencies and addressing racial bias.

Meus said she lost control of her car due to the onset of the stroke and collided with a cement block on Highway 40, near the Anjou exit, on July 24.

She said she parked her car at a nearby plaza before she was arrested, searched and detained by four police officers.

Police imposed a 90-day suspension on Meus’ drivers license. She said she had to pay around $300 to retrieve her car after it was towed.

Meus was then taken to the police station on Langelier Boulevard for approximately four hours. She told the officers at the station that she didn’t feel well and the handcuffs were too tight, but she claims the officers did nothing about it.

“After all that, I was exhausted. I couldn’t stand up anymore. I was practically shaking,” Meus said.

Meus said she had difficulty raising her arms and was unable to blow into the breathalyzer. She also said that officers prohibited her from sitting down when she told them she was too tired to be tested on her sobriety by walking in a straight line.

“There was a woman there who said to me, ‘if you don’t do that, we’ll say that you didn’t want to cooperate, and we’ll charge you with a criminal offense,’” Meus said. “I was like, ‘what do you mean? How can you charge me with a criminal offense? I didn’t commit a crime.'”

The official SPVM report obtained by CityNews cites drug use as the basis for arrest, but Meus claims she’s never done drugs in her life.

When her husband, who is a nurse, came to pick her up, he noticed she was showing signs of stroke and she was taken to the hospital, she says. She remained in care until Aug. 2.

CityNews contacted the SPVM, who declined to comment.

“I really had trouble speaking, even to get out of the car,” Meus said.

Meus said she will be pursuing legal action against the officers for detaining her instead of providing medical care. She is accusing the officers of “unimaginable racism, sheer incompetence, and gross negligence.”

“We have to stop judging people like that,” Meus said. “When (police) see someone who is Black, they are afraid, but afraid of what? We are human beings, so what are they afraid of?”

She and her family held a press conference with the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) on Thursday. The organization is helping Meus file a complaint to the Quebec Police Ethics Commissioner and the province’s human rights commission.

Meus’ daughter, Victoria, was present at the press conference and told reporters that her mother’s case was an example of “blatant negligence, downright incompetence, and also unacceptable racism.”

She recalled the moment she first saw her mom at the hospital.

“I was like, oh my gosh, she won’t be able to walk anymore, she won’t be able to do household chores, she won’t be the same person when she leaves the hospital,” Victoria said.

Meus and her family hope their complaint will hold the four officers accountable and lead to compensation like lost wages and the cost of retrieving Meus’ car. 

“Those signs should have triggered basically an emergency response on their part,” said CRARR Executive Director Fo Niemi. “We’re not talking about one or two police officers, we’re talking about four police officers not doing their job properly.”

Niemi said it’s the first time his organization has dealt with a case involving a person of colour whose health emergency was misidentified as a criminal offence.

“When you have a combination of racism, of pure incompetence, and of gross negligence, that can be fatal for a Black driver,” Niemi said.

Meus still has limited mobility on the left side of her body and now needs rely on others for simple tasks like getting out of cars. She told CityNews that she’s speaking out in the hopes that what happened to her doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“I find it upsetting that things don’t change,” Meus said. “How many families will have to be broken?”