On August 9, 2008, Fredy Villanueva fell under the bullets fired by officer Jean-Loup Lapointe of Montreal’s Police Department in the borough of Montreal North.

Six years later, has the time come to move on?

But how can we move on when the Villanueva family is still suffering from the negative impact of the police intervention that claimed the life of Fredy?

How can we move on when officer Lapointe has never been charged in court for shooting at three young men who had no weapon at all in their hands, on August 9, 2008?

How can we move on when eight police officials, including four commanders of Montreal’s Police Department, are awaiting trial before the Police Ethics Committee for their strongly questionable conduct during the Sûreté du Québec’s investigation into the police intervention that claimed Fredy Villanueva’s life - the same criminal investigation that cleared officer Lapointe of any wrongdoing?

How can we move on when the fight against racial profiling remains incomplete, as confirmed by the outgoing president of the Human Rights’s Commission in an interview last year?

How can we move on when municipal political authorities turned a deaf ear to the recommendation coroner André Perreault made for them in his report on the public inquiry into the causes and circumstances of the death of Fredy Villanueva?

Under these conditions, moving on to act as if nothing had happened would be tantamount to sticking our heads into the sand, an unacceptable choice for everyone who’s committed to the fight against police abuses and the institutional impunity that too often accompanies it.

This is why, once again, we’re calling for all those who sympathize with the cause of the Villanueva family to join a vigil commemorating the sixth anniversary of the death of Fredy Villanueva.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Beginning at 6 pm,

in the parking lot of Henri-Bourassa’s arena

behind 12 000 boul. Rolland, Montreal-North

An event organized by the Committee to support Dany Villanueva