Nooran Rezayi: Lafrenière doesn’t close door to public inquiry

The Legault government is open to holding a public coroner’s inquest into the death of 15-year-old Nooran Rezayi, killed by police in Longueuil on Sept. 21.

Public Security Minister Ian Lafrenière raised the possibility Thursday morning during Question Period.

But he specified that this would only be at the end of the processes already underway at Quebec’s police watchdog – the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI) – and the Montreal police (SPVM), if these investigations do not get to the bottom of the matter.

It was Québec solidaire (QS) MNA Andrés Fontecilla who called for a public inquiry, accusing the BEI of not being transparent.

“I’m not closing the door, but not at all,” Lafrenière replied during question period.

“One thing is clear: we can’t do both at the same time, because it will undermine the investigation process. So I ask my colleague, like me, to trust the process we have put in place, which is the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes.”

Fontecilla argued that the BEI’s work is not sufficient and pointed out that the organization has been criticized for hiring police officers.

“We don’t know what they recommend, after all, and everything is kept secret, for all practical purposes,” he said during a press scrum Thursday morning at the legislature.

The BEI’s investigations are not criminal in nature, “so they are not made public; it is really a summary that is made public and forwarded to the director of criminal and penal prosecutions,” he continued.

To support his statement, his colleague Alejandra Zaga Mendez cited the example of the coroner’s public inquiry into the death of young Fredy Villanueva, which began in 2009 and concluded in 2013, and which shed light on the case, “so that all of Quebec could have answers and learn lessons from it.”

According to the transcript of the 911 call obtained by Radio-Canada, on Sept. 21 at 2:47 p.m., someone reported the presence of 15 to 20 masked individuals armed with a baseball bat and a rifle in the Saint-Hubert area of Longueuil.

Among these individuals was Rezayi.

The presence of a firearm was mentioned at least four times during the call.

The first police officers arrived on the scene at 2:57 p.m., and at 2:58 p.m., Nooran Rezayi was shot at least once by a police officer.

Paramedics were called to the scene and attempted to resuscitate the teenager at 3:03 p.m.

He was pronounced dead at Charles-Lemoyne Hospital at 3:29 p.m.

Last Saturday, several hundred people marched in Longueuil in memory of Nooran Rezayi.

Fontecilla then spoke to the teenager’s loved ones and denounced police violence.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews