No charges for Constable 728 following pepper spray incident

Officer 728, Stefanie Trudeau, is accused of violent behaviour.

Stefanie Trudeau, the police officer best known as Matricule 728, will not be charged with any crimes stemming from an incident that took place during last year's student protests.

The Crown has decided it does not have enough evidence to understand the full context of why Constable Trudeau used pepper spray on several people.

On May 20, 2012 Constable Trudeau pepper-sprayed several people who were apparently taking part in a protest, but did not seem to be doing anything that required their being subdued.

Bystanders recorded the incident and put it on YouTube, and that incident along with several others led to Trudeau being suspended last year pending an investigation.

In April Montreal police finished their investigation and made their recommendations to Crown Prosecutors. The office of the DPCP has now decided that the video, and the 27 statements made by witnesses do not provide enough context for what happened.

The Crown said the witnesses did confirm that the protest on the night of May 20 was quite violent, and that demonstrators had repeatedly been informed they were not allowed to be on the streets.

Accordingly the Crown says that the actions taken by Constable Trudeau seem to fall under reasonable force.

Trudeau's lawyer said those sprayed were known to police as agitators who attempted to escalate the demonstration.

Martine Desjardins, who led one of the unions of University students during last year's protest movement against increased tuition, questioned the decision.

"Clearly the agent Trudeau wasn't doing her job. She reacted to the speech of the students and usually when you're a police officer you're trained not to react so clearly there's a major problem that needs to be revised," said Desjardins.

Trudeau is still being investigated for other actions that have led to her suspension.

Last fall she was filmed making multiple violent arrests after getting into an argument with someone holding a bottle of beer while standing in his front doorway.

She is also being investigated for uttering threats against her union bosses.

YouTube video of the pepper-spraying incident