A 24-year-old Montreal man who made headlines in late March after allegedly posting social media videos of himself insulting a female Montreal police officer faces three criminal charges related to insulting police officers.
Court records show that Mohamed Bekkali faces three charges of defamatory libel.
Prosecutors allege the events leading to the charges took place June 13 and 14 and involve three different police officers. It is unclear whether there is any link between the criminal charges and the video posted in March.
Bekkali pleaded not guilty to the three charges earlier this month.
The Criminal Code of Canada defines defamatory libel as being “matter published, without lawful justification or excuse, that is likely to injure the reputation of any person by exposing him to hatred, contempt or ridicule, or that is designed to insult the person of or concerning whom it is published.”
Quebec’s prosecution service declined to comment on the decision to charge Bekkali under the rarely-used criminal libel law. Libel allegations in Canada are generally pursed in civil court.
The criminal charges come after Bekkali allegedly posted multiple videos of himself insulting police officers on social media, along with images generated with the use of artificial intelligence, including at least one where police officers’ faces were superimposed on an image of three dogs being held on leashes, according to TVA, which reported that Bekkali removed allegedly libellous videos and images as a release condition.
The March video of a man who appears to be Bekkali expressing misogynistic and insulting remarks to a female police officer triggered a debate on whether Montreal should follow the lead of other municipalities and make a bylaw banning the use of insulting language toward a police officer.
On Monday, Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada praised the arrest and suggested she wants to move forward with the regulation.
Describing Bekkali’s alleged comments toward the police officer as “unacceptable, misogynistic and disrespectful,” she said it shows that there are lines that cannot be crossed.
“It’s a clear message that respect towards our police officers is not negotiable,” she said in an emailed statement. “We continue to recognize the importance of this regulation, and it is essential that we get it right. We want to work on it with the SPVM and the police brotherhood to ensure that we put in place a regulation that is effective, enforceable and legally sound.”
A social media account linked to Bekkali, where the March video was allegedly first posted, was not available on TikTok Monday afternoon. On an Instagram account claiming to belong to Bekkali, the March video no longer appears. However, another video of Bekkali allegedly insulting two male provincial police officers who have stopped him while driving remains posted.
Bekkali is scheduled to return to court in September.