{"id":727282,"date":"2026-06-10T10:33:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/727282\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T10:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:33:18","slug":"montreal-officer-cleared-of-wrongdoing-in-nicholas-gibbs-shooting-seeks-1-1-million-in-damages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/727282\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal officer cleared of wrongdoing in Nicholas Gibbs shooting seeks $1.1 million in damages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former Montreal police officer who fatally shot a young Black man during a 2018 intervention is suing Quebec\u2019s police ethics watchdog, alleging a nearly five-year delay in dismissing a complaint against him caused psychological harm and ended his career.<\/p>\n<p>Philippe Bertrand is seeking more than $1.1 million in damages from the Police Ethics Commissioner. He\u2019s arguing the agency acted in bad faith by taking until May 2023 to reject a complaint related to the shooting death of Nicholas Gibbs.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, the Bureau des enqu\u00eates ind\u00e9pendantes investigated the shooting and submitted its findings to prosecutors. Then in 2021, Quebec\u2019s Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions announced that no charges would be laid against the officers involved.<\/p>\n<p>But a separate ethics complaint remained unresolved.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2399\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0822-city-shooting.jpg\" alt=\"A body bag lies in the street with orange cones around it as a cyclist goes by, with police officers in the distant background.\" class=\"wp-image-100228514\"  \/>A cyclist steers around the scene where Nicholas Gibbs was shot by police the night before at the corner of Montclair St. and de Maisonneuve Blvd. in Montreal on Aug. 22, 2018. John Mahoney \/ Montreal Gazette files<\/p>\n<p>Gibbs, 23, died on Aug. 21, 2018, after Bertrand fired his service weapon while attempting to protect a fellow officer who was being threatened with a knife. The complaint was filed eight days later by Alexandre Popovic, an anti-police activist who was not present during the incident, according to court filings.<\/p>\n<p>Bertrand alleges the commissioner should have determined much sooner whether the complaint had merit. But it remained active for years while the criminal and independent investigations unfolded.<\/p>\n<p>The prolonged uncertainty contributed to post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep disturbances, social isolation, a loss of identity and an inability to return to policing, he alleges.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit says Bertrand now receives disability benefits and learned in 2025 that his psychological injuries are permanent, preventing him from ever returning to work as a police officer.<\/p>\n<p>Bertrand is seeking about $680,000 in compensatory damages, including lost income and missed career opportunities, as well as $500,000 in punitive damages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Montreal police officer who fatally shot a young Black man during a 2018 intervention is suing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-727282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}