In a press release Thursday and released Friday, Senegal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported a “rarely violent raid by Canadian police on August 2 at the home of a Senegalese diplomat serving at the Senegalese Embassy in Ottawa.”
The document states that she was “handcuffed and severely beaten to the point where she had difficulty breathing, which led to her being evacuated by ambulance to the hospital.”
The SPVG explains, in a press release published on Friday evening, that the police came to “assist a bailiff with an execution order” on Tuesday around 1:30 p.m.
The person was “aggressive and uncooperative” and police stepped in to explain the process.  It was at that moment that a “policewoman was hit in the face and injured,” the SPVG said.
“Police then decided to arrest the individual to end the offence, for the safety of bystanders. The individual resisted arrest and bit a second officer. The individual was then brought to the ground to be checked out,” police explained.
The bailiff was then able to make his order while the person was “held in the back of the patrol car, under the supervision of a police officer.”
“At no time did the person report being injured or in pain during questioning,” the SPVG added.
Police said paramedics attended to the same person at around 3pm and called the SPVG for assistance.
Senegal accuses the police of “humiliating physical and moral violence (to a diplomat), in front of witnesses and in the presence of her minor children.”
The country says it summoned the charge d’affaires of the Canadian embassy in Dakar to Senegal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday.  “A protest note has been served on the Canadian authorities,” it added.
The Senegalese government is calling for an investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators of this attack, claiming it is a “flagrant violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
The SPVG emphasizes for its part that it called the provincial and federal authorities.  A case file has been submitted “to the Director of Criminal and Criminal Prosecutions (DPPD) in order to lay charges for assaulting a police officer and obstructing police work.”
“Given the context and the allegation that a person was injured during the police intervention, SPVG management discussed the situation with the Ministry of Public Security,” the police service adds.
“Given that legal proceedings could follow,” SPVG says it will make no further comment and will cooperate with any subsequent action or investigation.
This story by The Canadian Press was first published in French on August 6, 2022.