A police officer has provoked controversy this week after being filmed kneeling on a Black teenager's neck.
Per CNN's Canadian news partner CBC, video footage shows Montreal police arresting a 14-year-old boy at Georges-Vanier High School after a fight between several individuals broke out on campus on June 10.
Take a look at the video of the incident right here:The footage opens with two Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) officers kneeling on the minor to restrain him. One with his knee on the teenager's lower back, the other pressing his knee on the boy's neck and face.
Approximately 15 seconds later, one of the officers in the video stands up again while the other then adjusts his position and continues to kneel with both legs on the teen's neck and back for another 40 seconds.
His colleague can be seen searching the boy's bag and handing over an object, which police claim was a stun gun the adolescent was in illegal possession of.
The as-yet-unidentified boy appears unharmed by his ordeal by the video's conclusion. Yet a number of Canadian citizens claim that the police officer's methods were heavy-handed and insensitive.
Several critics have cited the death of George Floyd; who was killed after ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes in May of 2020.
Per the above publication, Canadian legislator Frantz Benjamin, a Liberal member of the Quebec National Assembly, called the footage "shocking", and said that several of his constituents have called for an investigation into the arrest.
Meanwhile, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante told Radio-Canada: "The images circulating are worrying. This investigation should shed light on the entire intervention.
"The images of the intervention once again reiterate the importance of implementing body cameras, which we are working on with our partners."
SPVM spokesperson Inspector David Shane later confirmed that the officer who knelt on the teen's neck is continuing to work in the service and that two suspects were charged with carrying concealed weapons.
Insisting that there was more to the story than what was depicted in the brief clip, Inspector Shane stated:
"During an intervention, the person who has the initiative is always the suspect. Police have to react accordingly and with proportion."
Per CNN, the teen's mother claims that her son is now afraid to leave the house and that the family has sought help from the Maison D'Haiti, a cultural non-profit for the Haitian community.
She stated: "Is it because my son is Black? It's not because we're Black that we have to experience [that] kind of things. We're humans. Poor child."