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A Côte-des-Neiges man who was handcuffed and wrestled to the ground by Montreal police in a case of mistaken identity says he’s angry that his complaint to the Quebec police ethics commission has been dismissed.

Errol Burke said he entered a dépanneur to buy milk last February when police officers threw him to the ground, pointed their pistols at him and dragged him outside. Burke, a 54-year-old illustrator, said an officer also pinned him to a wall and then ordered him to “shut up and stop resisting” while he was on the ground.

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Police officers later told Burke there had been a stabbing in the area and he matched the description of the suspect, who was wearing military-style clothing. Burke said his winter parka had a camouflage pattern on it. Once the officers discovered they had targeted the wrong person, Burke said there was a lack of care or consideration shown toward him, apart from one officer who asked if he wanted to file a complaint.

“Not one of the officers present asked me if I was hurt or if I needed any help,” he said. “They knew how aggressive they had been with me.”

Burke felt he was a victim of racial profiling and filed a complaint with the Quebec police ethics commission. But after reviewing his complaint, deputy commissioner Hélène Tremblay informed Burke that nothing the officers did during the incident breached the police ethics code. In her decision, Tremblay said the police intervention “was not unreasonable taking into account the circumstances.”