Lawyer calls for review into excessive force allegations from Halifax police

A Halifax Regional Police badge is seen in this file photo.

HALIFAX -- A lawyer is calling for a judicial review after a complaint about the alleged misconduct of two Halifax police officers was investigated twice and dismissed both times.

Benjamin Perryman, a Halifax-based lawyer with an interest in constitutional and human rights law, said Nova Scotia's Police Complaints Commissioner failed to conduct a neutral and thorough investigation into his client's complaint, which was originally filed in December 2017.

According to legal documents obtained by The Canadian Press, Perryman's client, 19-year-old Cory Taylor, said he was arrested in the early hours of August 12, 2017, after he and his friends had a verbal and physical altercation with a group of men who hurled racial slurs at them.

Taylor alleged that as the group of men dispersed, a female Halifax Regional Police officer tackled him from behind against a building, giving him a concussion and injuring his nose. He said he did not hear any sort of verbal warning.

"When the fight occurred and ended, the police only came to me, and then arrested me without reading rights or anything," Taylor said in an interview.

Medical documents show he was diagnosed with a concussion at a local hospital the next day after spending the night in detention.

Taylor said he was not sure if the alleged incident was an act of racism, since the female officer was black as well. But he said the other group of men, who were white, were allowed to leave.

Halifax Regional Police did not return a request for comment over the weekend, but the decision of the internal investigation, emailed to Taylor by disciplinary officer Supt. Colleen Kelly in early May, tells a different version of events.

It said officers responded to a "physical disturbance" at around 4:30 a.m. where they gave verbal commands to those attempting to flee to stop. The decision said Taylor did not co-operate.

"Officer pursued this young man, caught up to him, and took hold of his arms to stop," the decision said. "He was passively resistant and his behaviour, as described by responding officers, became increasingly agitated and belligerent."

The decision concluded there was no proof Taylor's arrest was mishandled.

After Taylor asked for a review of the decision, Complaints Commissioner Judith McPhee conducted another investigation, and decided in September that the complaint was "without merit."

"Having reviewed the file, I find that there are no facts upon which a Review Board could make a finding of misconduct," she said.

Taylor also said police had misidentified him and booked him under the wrong name since he was holding his brother's identification at the time, and he said he made several attempts to correct the officers when they referred to him by the wrong name.

His mother, Wanda, said she spent much of the night not knowing where he was.

But police said they didn't recall him correcting the name, though the decision said the female officer "expressed remorse" that his family didn't know that he was being detained by police.

Perryman, Taylor's lawyer, said the conflicting versions of events point to a need for further investigation.

"It's a he-said, she-said situation, which is why it should be going to the police review board," Perryman said.

"In circumstances where there's two stories, and you have to tell which story is correct, those are the types of situations where you should have a review board, or you need to have a good reason for believing one side or the other."

Perryman also expressed concern about the impartiality of the investigation. He identified the person McPhee hired for the investigation as a former Halifax Regional Police officer, who he said wouldn't be able to conduct an unbiased probe.

"The person she hired to do the investigation is a former colleague of the people being investigated," he said.

"I think it's okay to hire a former police officer, because they might have experience in what they're investigating, but I don't think it's a good idea to hire a former colleague of the police department that's being investigated. To me, that's not neutral."

A request for judicial review for the Complaints Commissioner's investigation was filed to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia on Oct. 10.