NDP: New documents in Soleiman Faqiri case include experts identifying clear use of unauthorized force

QUEEN’S PARK — Gurratan Singh, NDP MPP for Brampton East and Official Opposition Attorney General critic, released the following statement regarding new court documents in the Soleiman Faqiri case:

“New court documents obtained by CBC News show that the guards who restrained Soleiman Faqiri in the last moments of his life did so in violation of use-of-force rules set out in their training.

Instead of receiving compassion and access to mental health supports during a time of crisis, Soleiman Faqiri was not just put in solitary confinement and brutally beaten, but also pepper-sprayed, shackled face down and wearing a spit hood – a combination that a jail sergeant at the scene that day, as well as a former police college instructor referred to as a ‘triple threat’ and a ‘perfect storm’ for cutting off his oxygen supply and death by asphyxiation.

Last year, the province filed a statement of defence denying any staff used ‘unauthorized force’ or that the province’s ‘servants or agents were aware their actions would lead to Mr. Faqiri's injuries’.

Mr. Faqiri’s family and community members have already called into question the deeply insulting rationale that since multiple guards beat him while he was shackled to the ground with a hood over his head, it was impossible to know which person dealt the fatal blow. Now this new information from use-of-force experts shines an even brighter spotlight on clear misconduct in this case.

I stand with Mr. Faqiri’s family, and racialized, Black and Indigenous communities across the province, in continuing to closely monitor this case, and I am calling on the Ford government – in particular, the Solicitor General and Attorney General – to do the same.”