Newly-released footage shows guards' excessive force against Indigenous prisoner

WARNING: Details of this incident may be distressing to some readers.

Newly-released surveillance footage captured from inside a Quebec prison shows a group of correctional officers kicking and piling on an individual in distress.

The 12-minute video provided to CTV News shows multiple officers on top of Nick Dinardo, a 30-year-old two-spirit person from Piapot First Nation who is currently incarcerated on charges of aggravated assault.

The clip begins with Dinardo standing in a hallway of Port-Cartier Institution on the night of May 30, 2021 as four correctional officers approach. After a conversation took place that lasted less than a minute, one of the officers charges towards Dinardo in what appears to be an attempt to push them back into their prison cell for the night.

For a few seconds, it appears as though the officers succeeded and one of the guards signals for his colleague to shut the motorized door, but Dinardo comes crawling out on their hands and knees. A struggle ensues and correctional officers attempt to shut the cell door again, but Dinardo’s leg – and at some moments their arm – remains wedged between the door frame.

One of the officers can be seen kicking Dinardo’s leg multiple times while three others stand by and watch.

A few more seconds pass and Dinardo’s entire body becomes wedged between the door frame, which is when three of the officers pulled them out of their cell and pinned them to the floor.

Dinardo told CTV News in a phone interview that during the incident they were experiencing a mental health crisis and were crying out for help. But instead, Dinardo says they were treated violently by prison staff who they claim used excessive force at a time when they say they needed compassion and care.

“I just felt myself getting hit in the head and stuff and I got my arm pulled up my back like they're gonna handcuff me and it was getting bent in all these different ways until eventually they stopped, lifted me up and put me in my cell,” Dinardo told CTV News in a May 2022 phone interview from Millhaven Institution for men in Bath, Ont.

“My whole arm was black – like blackish-purple – from the injury,” they added. “After eight days, a nurse finally looked at my arm, and she's like ‘yeah, you definitely need to go for X-rays.’”

Dinardo says the altercation with correctional officers resulted in a fractured arm that took weeks to heal.

Regarding the incident, Kevin Antonucci, a spokesperson for Correctional Service Canada (CSC), told CTV News, “We can confirm that there was an incident involving this offender where use of force was used.”

“CSC conducted an investigation into this incident and concluded that the use of force was disproportionate. A disciplinary investigation was also carried out. Following these processes, corrective measures to address the incident were taken,” he added.

CTV News asked whether the officers are still employed by the agency, but CSC refused to comment.

According to Dinardo’s team of lawyers at Prisoners’ Legal Services in British Columbia, correctional officers have repeatedly used force against Dinardo. The lawyers say Dinardo has been requesting videos depicting these events for years.

In December 2019, Dinardo filed their first Privacy Act request for prison records and, in September 2022, they filed two lawsuits in federal court to force CSC to release the footage.

“Access to information and videos regarding the government’s use of violence against people in prison is essential if we are going to have a prison system based on transparency and accountability,” Dinardo’s lawyer Jennifer Metcalfe said in a statement. “These rare glimpses of state violence behind prison walls should outrage the public.”

In addition to suing the federal government for prison records, Dinardo has also filed two human rights complaints against CSC for discriminating against them on the basis of their Indigenous identity, gender identity, religion and mental disability. The status of these complaints is ongoing.

“I am relieved to finally have these videos so the world can see the violence and injustice I have experienced in prison, but the struggle is far from over,” Dinardo said in a statement released by their lawyers.