Charges were dropped two years later in December 2017.

Nigel Bosum says he was camping in June 2016 when it started raining so he decided to head back home.

Bosum hitched a ride from a man on an ATV driving by.

“I asked him for a ride. I had my machete in my hand pulling my blanket over my shoulders holding the machete in my hand,” he testified Tuesday at the Quebec inquiry into the province’s relationship with Indigenous people.

“And the police will describe me as I was holding a machete in a threatening manner.”

He was arrested and jailed four days and charged.

The charges were dropped two years later in December 2017.

“After two years in the court system it was finally determined that the primary witness has been coerced by the local police force who pressed charges against me and when that came out the charges were just all dropped,” said Bosum.

The 37-year-old father of two young boys served in the Canadian army for 10 years.

His father, John-Phillip Bosum, testified as well.

“I just do not understand the police harassment just because he was in the army he was considered dangerous,” he said. “To me I feel safer with my son having a gun than I would with a policeman in the community.”

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