Indigenous boy with autism should not have been handcuffed at Vancouver hospital, says mother

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

The mother of an Indigenous boy who was handcuffed at a Vancouver hospital on Thursday says it should have been a safe place for her son, who has autism.

Instead, Mia Brown says, her 12-year-old was pinned to the floor and treated like an adult.

Brown started recording a video of the incident when one of the officers put his knee on her son's back. She later posted the video to social media.

Brown says she needed help with her son earlier at a SkyTrain station because he was "pushing." Two officers with the Metro Vancouver Transit Police brought him to B.C. Children's Hospital for assessment under the Mental Health Act.

Her son has been to that same hospital before, Brown says, and he became upset because the room they had waited in during a previous visit wasn't available.

She says officers then pinned her son to the floor and handcuffed him at "the first sound of his whining," without first asking him to calm down.

In a statement to CBC, Transit Police said officers responded to a call for help from a SkyTrain attendant at Broadway-Commercial Station just before 5 p.m. that day.

Officers found a youth who was "physically assaulting a woman, later identified as his mother," the statement said.

"Officers attempted to verbally de-escalate the situation, but the youth began trying to push their mother toward the tracks, causing an even greater concern for her safety."

A Transit Police spokesperson said the mother had minor injuries, including a bloody face, and that the boy allegedly assaulted the SkyTrain attendant when they tried to intervene. 

Officers used handcuffs to restrain the boy on the way to the hospital, which they later removed, before the incident Brown recorded on video.

"The use of physical force is always a last resort,'' the transit police statement said.

But in the case of Brown's son, police said "it was a necessary step to ensure the safety of the person in the midst of a crisis, the general public and the officers involved.''