Canada

Ontario’s police watchdog says it is not investigating the case of a lawyer who is alleging that multiple Durham Regional Police Service officers slammed her head on a desk without provocation and dragged her to the basement cells of the Oshawa courthouse last week.

Riley, through a statement issued by her lawyer, Neha Chugh, said she was working in an interview room at the courthouse last Friday when uniformed officers “challenged her presence” in the room.

In the statement, Chugh said police, who were working as security, slammed Riley's head on the desk and put their knees on her back and neck, and spoke to her with “rage, disrespect, and contempt.”

She said officers then forcibly “dragged” Riley from the room in handcuffs and took her to the basement cells of the courthouse.

“Her head scarf was ripped off, her skirt was raised when she was handled by officers, and her head was bleeding and her eye swollen from being slammed into the desk,” Chugh's statement reads.

“She committed no offence other than being a Black woman practising law, being diligent about her commitment to the pursuit of justice.”