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A human rights complaint was filed against BMO and the Vancouver Police Board after an indigenous man and his granddaughter were handcuffed while trying to open an account at a Vancouver bank branch last year.
Maxwell Johnson and her granddaughter 12 years old Tori-Anne, both members of the Heiltsuk Nation in Bella Bella, BC, were handcuffed on 20 December after the bank staff examined the identification documents of the couple and called 911 to report suspected fraud in progress.
Johnson and Tori-Anne were using government-issued Indian state cards, her birth certificate, and her medical card. He said the clerk got suspicious and went upstairs with the papers.
“I was scared,” Tori-Anne said in January when she told CBC News about the incident. “The whole thing, being handcuffed, after all the identification we have proven to be who we are.”
Bank manager called emergency services for about 2 “South Asians”
The lawyers have now released a transcript of the call to emergency services and a report drawn up by the Vancouver Police Department.
“I had a pain in my heart as I read it,” said Marilyn Slett, chief counselor of the Heiltsuk nation.
The transcripts reveal that a BMO branch manager called 911 on Johnson and his niece, before saying that BMO thought the two were presenting fake ID cards.
The manager said he was also concerned about a large sum of money Johnson had in his account – money that he and all other Heiltsuk members received as a result of an Aboriginal rights agreement.
According to the transcript, the manager thought the two were from South Asia, estimating Johnson was 50 and Tori-Anne a teenager. But in another part of the phone call, the manager refers to Johnson as a “white gentleman”.
“I was quite surprised that they said we were South Asian people with status cards, which blew me away when they said it,” Johnson said in an interview from his home in Bella Bella.
Indigenous services recommend calling the police, the manager said
In the 911 call, the BMO manager doesn’t seem to understand what an Indian state card is.
At one point the manager tells the operator “we were told by the Indian, uh, the government, to contact the police.” When asked for clarification, the manager states, “I have contacted the number … on the Canadian government website regarding the Indian state verification.”
The branch manager of the BMO then said that Indigenous Services Canada – the agency responsible for issuing Indian state cards – recommended calling the police.
“The call to Indigenous Services Canada stood out for me,” Slett said.
“A caller or a person on the other end of the phone advising you to confiscate your card and call the authorities was really alarming, and it’s systemic racism, it’s institutionalized racism.
“We have a long way ahead of us as a country.”
CBC has contacted Indigenous Services Canada, BMO, and VPD for comment on the incident outlined in the 911 call, but has not yet been answered.
The police report provides 4 reasons for suspicion
In January, BMO executive Cameron Fowler told CBC that the BMO employee called the emergency health services due to a clerical error on Tori-Anne’s Indian status card, which Johnson confirmed.
His card had two lit numbers on the card, an error that has since been corrected by Indigenous Services Canada.
The police report outlines four reasons why the branch manager considered the attempt to open a new account “suspicious”: the clerical mistake on Tori-Anne’s Indian card; a recent large money deposit; Johnson changed his phone number on the account the day before; and Johnson’s Indian state card did not match that of the BMO database.
For Johnson, the 911 call and police report provided little solace as to why he and his granddaughter were handcuffed and detained on a busy downtown Vancouver street across from the bank.
“I’m still trying to figure it out,” he said.
Johnson says he’s nervous about the human rights complaints, but adds it’s the right thing to do.
“I know this is something I have to do for my family, and it has to be done not just for ours [Heiltsuk] nation, but for other people who are discriminated against because of the color of their skin, “he said.
The bank has since apologized and the VPD has called the incident “sorry”.
CBC’s Angela Sterritt revealed this story in January. To hear her talk more about the human rights complaint just filed and to hear excerpts from the 911 call, tap the audio link below:
The first edition9:38Details emerge from the 9-1-1 call that led to the wrongful arrest of the indigenous grandfather at a BMO
Angela Sterrit talks to Stephen Quinn about Maxwell Johnson’s arrest in front of her 12-year-old granddaughter. 9:38
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