A Black woman says she was detained for several hours by Montreal police on suspicion of impaired driving when, in fact, she was having a stroke. Neslyne Meus lost control of her car and crashed into a cement barrier on July 24. “I said that I had never taken drugs but they stopped me anyway,” Meus said at a news conference Thursday. “I had real difficulty speaking, even getting out of the car.” She was brought to a police station where she spent nearly four hours. “They made me take lots of tests, and obviously I couldn’t cooperate 100 per cent because I was already leaning to the left,” she said, due to her medical condition. Meus also recalled officers threatening to press more charges if she did not cooperate, which was difficult given her condition. She was told to take a breathalyzer test, but she was unable to blow hard enough to make it work. Meus is a nurse and so is her daughter, Victoria, who was emotional recalling that night. “I am a nurse, so knowing what her diagnosis was and then knowing the consequences, that really stressed me out,” Victoria said at the news conference. Through the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), Meus will be filing complaints for racial profiling against the officers who detained her. “We hope that the Montreal police will take this as a wake up call,” says Fo Niemi, the executive director of CRARR. “About better training, better detection of medical emergencies, and how to avoid letting racial bias interfere with your ability to provide first aid.” Meus went to the emergency room as soon as she was released from police custody, and says she ended up spending nine days in the hospital. “What I find is that when the police see someone who is Black — a woman or a man — they are more inclined to search them to find something other than the real reason why they were stopped," Meus said. She added that she feels lucky to be alive considering she spent hours inside a police station when she should have been receiving treatment for a stroke. In a statement to CTV News, the SPVM said it does not comment on specific police interventions, but that anyone who has an issue can file a complaint.
