Two Montreal police officers will be suspended without pay for their roles in threatening to tie a homeless man to a pole outside a metro station on a freezing cold January day.

Quebec's police ethics committee released its decision on the sanctions today.

Officer Pierre-Luc Gauthier will be suspended without pay for two days for using intimidation and showing disrespect.

Gauthier's punishment is technically two separate two-day suspensions, which will be served concurrently according to the police ethics committee's decision.

Gauthier's colleague, officer Vincent Marcotte, will be suspended for one day without pay for not stepping in to intervene.

The incident dates back to January 2014, on a day when temperatures hovered around -35 C.

Cellphone video captured by a witness and posted to YouTube shows officer Pierre-Luc Gauthier reprimanding a disheveled man who had been asking people for change.

The man was dressed only in shorts and a T-shirt.

The officer tells the man he has to calm down and find a place to warm up. Then he tells the man he will tie him to a pole for an hour if he gets another complaint about his panhandling.

In July, the police ethics commission ruled Gauthier's threat was "excessive" and an "abuse of authority."

Gauthier's partner, Vincent Marcotte, was reprimanded for not stepping in to intervene.