VIDEO: Chiefs join human rights case of Indigenous man handcuffed by police in B.C. bank
This story originally appeared in The Abbortsford News on June 16, 2021.
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs is intervening in a human rights complaint launched against the Vancouver Police Department by a Heiltsuk First Nation man who, along with his granddaughter Torianne, was handcuffed after bank staff called police on them.
Maxwell Johnson and his granddaughter went at a Bank of Montreal branch in Vancouver on Dec. 20, 2019, to open a bank account for Torianne.
Bank staff called 911 on the duo, citing concerns over fraud linked to transactions in Johnson’s account and their use of Indian Status Cards as identification.