A video showing Montreal police allegedly harassing a man in a wheelchair as he crossed the street is making the rounds of social media.
The video was posted on Facebook by user Kate Albisi, who explained she and a colleague were out for a coffee break around 11:30 a.m. when they noticed the man, who appeared to be in his 50s, attempt to cross the street at the corner of McGill College and Sherbrooke Street.
READ MORE: Montreal disability rights advocates roll out campaign for wheelchair accessible terraces
“As he neared the middle of the road, the light changed, forcing him to either continue crossing or go back,” she explained.
A Montreal police officer, whom Albisi identifies as “Officer L’Heureux” reportedly confronted him for being in the middle of the intersection.
“The man asked him to stop, but L’Heureux kept pushing him. The man swore at L’Heureux and again asked him to stop pushing him.”
Global News spoke to Officer L’Heureux, but he refused to elaborate on what happened.
He simply confirmed he was working on McGill College Wednesday and had given out several tickets.
“L’Heureux’s colleague stepped in and pushed the man’s chair onto the sidewalk,” Albisi elaborated.
“Once on the sidewalk, L’Heureux said to the man in the wheelchair: “You think you can do whatever you want just because you’re in a chair? Yeah? I’m going to give you a f—ing ticket. You asked for it.”
The man reportedly did not have a piece of ID on him, prompting the officer to search the man’s bag “without permission and removed a prescription medication bottle to get his name.”
Albisi continued to write that the officer then turned to her and her colleague to ask if they had a problem.
“We responded that we had a problem with the way they were dealing with the man in the wheelchair,” she wrote.
“As both officers were engaged in dealing with the man in the wheelchair, no one was directing traffic. We asked if we could cross the street as it had become chaos.”
“The officers told us ‘no, that it was a red light and we would get a ticket.’ When we pointed out that there were many people crossing the street on the red light, they told us that those people wouldn’t get a ticket, but that we would.”
READ MORE: Quebec police say wheelchair-bound man gunned down while crossing the street
Montreal police said they are aware of the video, but that there are “two sides to every story.”
The authorities are looking into the issue and a commander has since spoken to the officer.
rachel.lau@globalnews.ca
Follow @rachel_lau