A Saskatoon lawyer is sounding the alarm about the treatment of a homeless advocate who she says was in police custody for close to nine hours while officials cleared out the encampment where he had been living.
An encampment on Avenue K that was home to more than 100 people was torn down Thursday after police and fire officials moved people out.
David Fineday, a leading homeless advocate, was living in the camp. He told CBC he was out grabbing a coffee with his son when he got a call about the police at the encampment.
“So I came hustling back and my son and I grabbed my smudge pot,” Fineday said.
“I was going to sit down and have a smudge and talk with them and two officers just grabbed me and they just manhandled me to the vehicle.”
David Fineday is a leading homelessness advocate in Saskatoon. (Halyna Mihalik/CBC)
Fineday’s lawyer said he was arrested for mischief over $5,000 and held in police custody for the entire nine-hour duration of the encampment clear-out.
Fineday said his son was detained alongside him and that they were in custody from 8:30 am and released just after 5:30 pm.
“They said, yeah, we’ll have your paperwork done by maybe 11 a.m., 1 p.m. at the latest, but we have to hold you until that encampment is shut down,” Fineday said.
“They said that officer down there, we have to call him back so he can finish writing his report.”
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The Community Legal Assistance Services for Saskatoon Inner City Inc. (CLASSIC) said the prolonged detention raises serious concerns about what it calls the arbitrary use of police powers and whether the stated administrative process was used to prevent him from returning to the encampment while the police carried out a raid.
“We received inconsistent explanations for why he was being detained,” said Catriona Kaiser-Derrick, a senior supervising lawyer at CLASSIC.
“Whether that explanation is he had to be detained until the operation was complete or he had to be detained until administrative processing and paperwork was complete.”
“Our position is that either of these explanations are arbitrary and unreasonable.”
Catriona Kaiser-Derrick, a senior supervising lawyer at CLASSIC, says David Fineday’s arrest was unjust. (Halyna Mihalik/CBC)
CBC asked Saskatoon Police about the reason behind Fineday’s arrest, the length of time he was in custody, why the arrest coincided with the encampment clear-up, how long people facing mischief charges are usually detained and what the cause of the arrest was.
Saskatoon Police point to the processing time as the reason why Fineday was in custody for nine hours.
“Depending on the circumstances and demands occurring within our Detention Unit at any given time, the duration of processing someone who has been arrested and charged can vary,” Saskatoon Police wrote in a statement to CBC.
Police said the matter is now before the courts and they will not be able to provide further details relating to the mischief charge or the duration of Fineday
