Kuujjuaraapik police officers won’t face charges over 2023 incident

Quebec’s Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions won’t charge Kuujjuaraapik police officers in connection with events surrounding the arrest of a woman in April 2023.

The decision was made following a review of the case by the Bureau of Independent Investigations, the province’s police watchdog, according to an Aug. 5 news release from the director’s office.

Known in Quebec as the DPCP, the office of the prosecutions director is an independent agency that authorizes and directs penal prosecutions on behalf of the province.

At 12:06 a.m. on April 12, 2023, a Nunavik Police Service officer arrested a woman who had been found lying in the middle of the street in Kuujjuaraapik, the release said.

The woman, who was not identified in the release, was found to be in breach of court conditions and was taken to a holding cell.

The woman said multiple times that she was having panic attacks and needed medication to relieve her anxiety, the release said. The officer helped her perform breathing exercises in an attempt to calm her down.

The day after her arrest, the woman, who was still being detained, suffered multiple episodes of muscular spasms over the span of an hour and vomited a white translucent substance, surveillance camera footage showed.

After an hour, a police officer entered the woman’s cell area and found her semiconscious and breathing loudly with red secretions visible near her nose and mouth.

The officer called for paramedics who took the woman to hospital where she was treated for rhabdomyolysis, a condition which causes muscles to rapidly break down or disintegrate.

The DPCP said in the release it found none of the police officers involved had committed any infractions.

Because the muscular spasm episodes lasted a few seconds to a few minutes each, they were not witnessed by the officers. And when they did notice the woman’s condition, it said, they acted promptly.

The woman recovered, and during a later interrogation said she did not remember anything from her incarceration.