‘I want an investigation’: tourists identified by VPD speak out

When Mohammed Sharaz first visited Vancouver from England last year with his 14-year-old son Salahuddin, he found the city amazing.

In his second trip to Vancouver, Sharaz feels trapped.

“We haven’t gone anywhere,” he says.

Two days ago Sharaz, his son and his friend unwittingly became the centre of a police and media firestorm. Security footage showed the three of them taking photos and video in Pacific Centre Mall days earlier. The Vancouver Police Deparment was trying to identify them – and an internal memo about the investigation, including pictures of them, was sent to the online news site Vancity Buzz, which published a story on January 16.

READ MORE: Vancouver Police ‘not racial profiling’ suspects who took video of Pacific Centre

“They didn’t think much of us, they sent it out, caused a lot of panic, caused a lot of grief for us,” Sharaz said.

“They’ve published this story without blurring the faces. He’s a child, he’s going to look over his shoulder the rest of his life now. They’ve released it without blurring the photos, so the whole world’s seen us.”

VPD subsequently confirmed to Global News the story was accurate, and said they would also be sending out unblurred photos of the three males. But later that evening, they said there was “no reason believe that these men have committed a crime or “that the public is currently at risk,” and opted not to share the photos.

The next day, VPD Chief Cst. Adam Palmer said the memo “was not intended or authorized to be shared with the general public at this time,” and hours later said the three were “completely innocent.”

READ MORE: VPD say men filming in Pacific Centre ‘completely innocent’

The three tourists say that’s not good enough, and are calling for an investigation.

“Who’s responsible?” asked Mohammed Karieem, Sharaz’s friend.

“It’s one or two people or 10 people who leaked this story. At the end of the day, they’re responsible, and we need to know who they are, and why they did it. What’s the purpose?”

Videos and photos taken because of visual impairment

Sharaz, his son Salahuddin and Karieem were visiting Vancouver to visit a doctor who is treating Salahuddin and Karieem’s eye condition.

For that reason, Sharaz says they take many more photos and videos when travelling than other tourists might.

He says they were the victims of racial profiling – “If it was three Caucasian men, it wouldn’t have been a big deal” – but says he understands why Pacific Centre security found their photography curious and alerted police.

“They looked at it, thought these guys are up to something dodgy. I don’t mind that, the police have a job to do. If they felt something’s not right, even a small thing, it’s their job to investigate. That little thing, if it’s ignored, it could become something major,” Sharaz said.

However, he’s disappointed with the lack of communication from the VPD since he reached out to them Friday morning.

“They haven’t said, ‘We’re sorry for what’s happened’…they haven’t come back and asked if we need any help,” he said.

“The least they could do is say, ‘we’ve got a police officer, he’ll stay with you now,’ take us out somewhere. Make sure we can carry on doing our normal activities and feel safe.”

One person who did reach to the trio is Salim Jiwa, a local freelance reporter who worked for The Province newspaper as an investigative reporter for decades.

“After listening to their story, I felt terrible inside,” said Jiwa, who connected with Sharaz over Twitter.

“I apologized to them on behalf of Canadians. I felt so bad this could happen in our country to two handicapped people.”

He’s calling on Vancouver Police to formally apologize.

“They have to apologize to these people, and they have to investigate how a sensitive terrorism memo goes out into the hands of the media,” he said.

“I think it was a deliberate leak, and I think the VPD has to reassure us through an investigation that it was not a deliberate leak, because they jeopardized these people’s lives.”