A Bay Street analyst who checked out the G20 protests on a lark but left in handcuffs is relieved that his SIU case has been reopened.

Canute “Kenny” Fernandes, 42, a senior business analyst at BMO, was overrun and injured his shoulder during the protests on June 26. The Special Investigations Unit has been unable to determine whether civilians or police caused the injuries.

But the SIU announced Wednesday that new video showing the arrest of Fernandes was received over the weekend from Reuters.

The footage does not show the moment Fernandes was overrun, but SIU investigators hope two civilian witnesses in the video can shed light on what happened. Stills of the footage show one may have had a camera.

Initially, the SIU interviewed eight police witnesses and three civilians, but there wasn’t enough information to determine who was responsible for Fernandes’s injuries. In November, the agency closed the case.

“I was disappointed. . . . I told them it was the police, there was no possible way any civilians did it,” Fernandes said. “They had all ran past us. We were the only two standing there.”

Fernandes said he alerted the SIU to a YouTube video of the incident on Feb. 8. Acting on a tip, the SIU tracked down the raw footage and received the higher quality images over the weekend, said spokesman Frank Phillips.

Fernandes had been watching a World Cup match at his home near Queen St. W. when his friends called him to check out the protests. He met them around 6 p.m., when people were beginning to take photos of a burned out police cruiser in the Queen and Spadina area.

In the next half hour, Fernandes watched from what he considered to be a safe distance as someone set a second cruiser on fire. Around the same time, police rushed toward the civilians who had gathered in the area, he said.

“I was standing with my back toward Spadina . . . talking to my friend and she suddenly said, ‘Run!’ ” Fernandes recalled.

“I turned back to see why. . . . The next thing the cops threw me down . . . I fell straight onto my right shoulder.”

The Reuters video shows a wincing Fernandes being dragged by officers.

He said after he was dragged out of the way, five to seven officers pressed their knees against his body to hold him down.

He said he was Tasered in the mouth when he was unable to move his injured arm from under his body to be handcuffed. He was later taken to the Eastern Ave. detention centre, but was not charged.

“All this time I was telling them the arm was broken and needed attention,” he said. “I asked at least 10 to 15 officers to give me a sling or even a garbage bag. No one was ready to give it to me.”

Fernandes said he was taken to hospital at 1:30 a.m.

Fernandes does not have legal representation but is part of two separate class action lawsuits filed on behalf of people held by police but not charged.

Fernandes’s ordeal was one of six G20 cases originally probed and closed by the police watchdog in late November.

Since then, four cases have been reopened and one officer, Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani, has been charged with assault with a weapon in the takedown of protester Adam Nobody.

Graeme Norton, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s public safety program, said the reopened cases illustrate the continued reliance the SIU has on public and media information.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“My suspicion is these cases would have otherwise remained closed,” he said. “It raises questions about the ability of the current police accountability mechanism.”

The SIU said if new and relevant material surfaces on the remaining two civilians who had their G20 cases closed, those could be reopened as well.

In the meantime, the agency is asking the two people who appear in the photos, or anyone who may know the identity of these two people, to contact the lead investigator at 416-622-2293 or 1-800-787-8529 ext. 2293.

Read more about: