The abusive reputation of disarmed Montreal police officer Sanjay Vig

According to a report by No Borders Media, Sanjay Vig, the Montreal police officer who was disarmed, beaten and shot at in Parc Extension on Jan. 28 has a reputation among neighbourhood residents for being abusive, and has been accused of and suspended for misconduct towards an Arab man and homophobic slurs, both in the course of routine traffic stops. Vig’s disarming and subsequent injury prompted the wrongful aggressive arrest, detention and charging of Mamadi III Fara Camara (as well as the ransacking of his house) who has subsequently been freed and cleared of all charges. The arrest and treatment of Camara has prompted a national scandal and focused attention on what went wrong during the investigation.

In the first publicly reported incident involving Vig, which took place in 2012, the traffic cop used inappropriate force while illegally arrested a man. In the second incident, in 2018, Vig allegedly called a man “a f*cking f*ggot,” among other things. No Borders Media points out that despite these past reports, his reputation in the neighbourhood and the suspicious circumstances surrounding the recent incident in Parc Ex, some local media outlets are making space for “positive” stories about the officer.

“Sanjay Vig has a reputation as an abusive cop in the Parc Extension area, with many residents referring, off-the-record, to negative interactions with him. But, in the aftermath of the incident on Jan. 28, some mainstream media outlets in Montreal are either providing space to praise Vig — for example, in La Presse and this news article in Le Journal de Montréal, which refers to just one ‘stain’ in Vig’s police career — or simply not digging into the reality of Vig’s behaviour as a police officer, and the complicity of his colleagues, superiors, as well as prosecutors.”
—No Borders Media

No Borders Media is asking anyone who “can corroborate other incidents with SPVM officer Vig” to contact them for a confidential and off-the-record discussion. See the full report and contact info here.

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