City of Montreal settles with Black woman whose arm was broken by police
CBC
What was supposed to be a fun night out for Majiza Philip and her roommate Shane in 2014, turned into a broken arm and months of depression and anxiety after being arrested by Montreal police officers.
Now, almost eight years later, the City of Montreal has reached an out-of-court settlement with Philip after she filed a $700,000 civil suit against the municipality and police officers Éric Sabourin and Steve Thibert.
An email from a city spokeswoman confirmed Philip will receive just under $95,000. Her case had been scheduled to go to court in April.
It's a huge relief to the 33-year-old woman.
"It's a strange feeling to be happy over something so traumatic in my life. I guess to get an outcome like this is a beautiful thing," said Philip. "But there's still that reality of what happened to me."
What happened to Philip is an event she won't soon forget.
Philip and her friend went to a rap concert at a downtown Montreal concert hall in November 2014. After the show, officers arrested her friend for being drunk in public and placed him in the back of a police cruiser.
Philip tapped on the police car window to tell him she would meet him at the police station with his coat and belongings.
It was then that officers claimed Philip tried to break the cruiser's window trying to free O'Brien. Three officers arrested her, breaking her left arm in the process. She now has a long scar after surgery to repair the injury.
Months later, while filing a complaint with the Police Ethics Commission, Philip learned to her surprise that she was facing charges in municipal court for assaulting police officers and obstructing justice.
Judge Katia Mouscardy acquitted her of all charges, casting doubt on the officers' version of events in the 2017 trial.
"The testimony heard in prosecution gives the impression that one tried to camouflage an intervention that took a bad turn," she wrote in her ruling. "The multiple contradictions and oversights in the police testimony force the Court to question their willingness to truthfully relate what happened with Philip."
Philip believes officers treated her differently that night in 2014 because she is Black.
She says she still lives with the memories, feeling anxious when she sees police officers or hears a siren. She says she struggles to explain what happened to the curious 7-year-old children she teaches tap dancing to, when they ask about the scar on her arm.
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