An investigation is underway by the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner after a farm worker in Abbotsford, B.C., alleged he was assaulted and wrongfully arrested by police.
Abbotsford police said Friday that they assisted officers with the RCMP’s Federal Serious Organized Crime Border Integrity unit on July 20 in a drug smuggling investigation along the Canada/U.S. border.
Officers were searching for a number of suspects, police said, and a few men were found on a nearby farm. They were detained and later released when it was determined they were not the suspects, police added.
Cpl. Daniel Michaud with BC RCMP “E” Division told Global News it appears the farm worker was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He said officers were looking for two suspects but lost track of one, who remains at large.
According to the Abbotsford News, one of the farm workers was punched and kicked by an officer and attacked by a police dog while another was held at gunpoint.
“I’m aware of only one Mexican worker on the site that had contact with police,” Michaud said.
Officers were not targeting the man, but were reacting to whoever was present during the search of a large area.
A Vancouver-based non-profit organization that advocates for temporary foreign workers released a statement condemning “police brutality.”
“For more than a half of a century, temporary foreign farm workers have been coming to Canada to put food on your tables,” said the statement from the Dignidad Migrante Society.
“Thanks to the migrant workers, many companies make a lot of profit and small businesses in several communities like Langley, Abbotsford, Kelowna, Ladner, Penticton, Vernon, and others depend on us to grow.”
The society is asking police and civil authorities to suspend the officer involved while the external investigation is carried out, issue a public apology, and compensate the workers for “physical and emotional damage.”
Hugo Velazquez, coordinator of the seasonal agricultural workers program at the Mexican consulate in Vancouver, has been in contact with the farm workers and is providing assistance.
“An investigation will proceed under the Police Act to determine whether any of the municipal officers involved committed misconduct. The investigation will examine the circumstances of police response and any force used,” Andrea Spindler, the deputy police complaint commissioner, said in a release.
Vancouver police will conduct the probe as a third-party police agency, the release added.
U.S. border officials confirmed they are not conducting their own investigation.
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