The conduct of transit officers is coming under scrutiny again after GO Transit constables were filmed arresting a man who may have been suffering from mental health issues.

A cellphone video posted online Tuesday by journalist and activist Desmond Cole captures the arrest of a 34-year-old man by transit officers and Toronto police at the Union Station bus terminal on the early morning of March 11.

According to police, the incident took place over roughly 90 minutes. The video, which was shot by an unnamed bystander, has been edited down to five minutes and 24 seconds, which Cole said was necessary in part to protect the man’s identity.

Cole, who is a former Star columnist, wrote that the incident constituted “police brutality.” Spokespersons for both the police and Metrolinx, the provincial agency that operates GO, said they’ve seen no evidence officers did anything wrong.

Cole didn’t immediately share an unedited version of the video with the Star on Tuesday, and didn’t put a reporter in touch with the witness who shot the footage.

The posted video shows three GO Transit officers confronting the man as he sits quietly on a bench at the downtown bus terminal.

“I’m trying to prevent you from getting arrested … I understand you got some mental health issues,” one of the officers says. The man appears to say he’d be willing to take an ambulance, and the officer responds “We’ve requested that for you.”

One of the officers tells the man he’s under arrest and asks him to stand up and turn around. When he doesn’t comply, the officers grab and restrain him.

Later in the video more GO officers arrive, as do Toronto police. According to Cole, at least four police officers and seven GO officers were on the scene. A GO officer, and then a police officer, can be seen placing a knee on the man’s head while he’s on the ground.

Eventually an ambulance arrives, but a police officer tells a woman who appears to be a paramedic not to treat the man because “he’s been kicking and biting us.” The officers then take the man away in handcuffs and leg restraints.

According to Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins, the agency has reviewed the edited video as well as its own surveillance footage and determined its officers didn’t act inappropriately. She said she could not share the surveillance video publicly because of privacy concerns.

Aikins said that prior to his arrest, the man was allegedly “aggressively panhandling” in the station, including screaming and getting physically close to customers. She said transit officers asked him to leave but he returned.

According to Aikins, the edited video doesn’t show that the man allegedly kicked one of the GO officers in the head as they struggled with him on the ground, and that he allegedly tried to bite the officers.

“Our officers used a minimal amount of force in order to restrain him,” she said.

Mark Pugash, a spokesperson for the Toronto police, said because the video had been edited, “we have no way of knowing what was removed” and “it is impossible on the basis of a four- or five-minute edited video of a 90-minute occurrence to reach any credible conclusions.”

He added that he didn’t see any officer behaviour in the video that struck him as “unwarranted.”

Under the Mental Health Act, police can take a person in crisis to the hospital if they pose a risk to themselves or others. Pugash said he hadn’t reviewed the officers’ notes and didn’t want to speculate about why that didn’t happen in this case.

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Police say the man, who was referred to by GO officers in the video as “Chris,” is actually named Justin Williams. He has been charged with aggressive solicitation, obstructing a peace officer, assaulting a peace officer, and failure to comply with probation.

Metrolinx employs about 80 transit safety officers, who are charged with enforcing provincial bylaws and the Criminal Code on GO property. They’re designated special constables, have limited powers compared to police, and carry collapsible batons, pepper spray, and handcuffs.

The Union Station incident comes less than a month after the TTC suspended a fare inspection officer who was involved in a violent altercation with a Black teenager on a streetcar line. The TTC is investigating the case, and the city ombudsman has opened her own review.

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