A Vancouver Police Department officer has been cleared of wrongdoing after an investigation into him pushing a North Vancouver woman to the ground during a protest.
In May 2019, a CTV News camera operator captured the incident outside the Opus Hotel, where anti-pipeline protestors gathered outside a Liberal Party of Canada fundraiser.
The video shows Susan Stout approaching the police line and bumping two officers before being shoved backwards.
At the time, Stout said she was trying to keep an eye on another protester who had been pinned down by security.
Because footage was spreading via news reports and on social media, the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, announced an investigation to whether the officer’s amounted to misconduct under the Police Act.
After conducting interviews with Stout, the officer and other witnesses at the scene, the investigation concluded it did not.
“This is really an unfortunate set of circumstances. When you look at the evidence, and the information from the individuals who were interviewed, it would appear that the officer was responsible for holding the line at the protest, and that was his duty at that time,” said Andrea Spindler, deputy police complaint commissioner. “They both had applied some degree of force to that particular individual. There was no intent to push her to the ground. And so based on those circumstances and the evidence obtained, the discipline authority determined that the actions of the officer did not rise to the level of misconduct.”
