Ontario police watchdog investigating arrest of Toronto cyclist

Toronto police officers are seen arresting a cyclist on Queens Quay West on May 31. (The Biking Lawyer/Instagram)

A cyclist who was tackled off his bike by police last weekend in an incident that was captured on video has been diagnosed with a concussion and other injuries, his lawyer tells CP24.

Late Thursday afternoon, Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) confirmed to CP24 that it has invoked its mandate.

The SIU is a civilian agency that is called in to investigate when police are involved in an incident that results in death, serious injury, sexual assault, and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person.

The incident happened at around 6:30 p.m. on May 31 after the cyclist, identified by police as a man in his 20s, allegedly disobeyed a stop sign near Queen’s Quay West and Little Norway Crescent.

Toronto police have previously said that he refused to stop for officers and proceeded to shout a profanity at officers as he passed them.

The lawyer for the cyclist, however, has raised concerns about what he says was an overly “aggressive” response by police.

“We can confirm that (he) has been diagnosed with a head injury/concussion and given a referral to a head injury clinic,” David Shellnut, of The Biking Lawyer, told CP24 on Thursday.

“(Our client’s) concussion symptoms remain ongoing. He also has soft tissue injuries, cuts and bruises, and the psychological trauma commonly associated with being assaulted by state actors.”

Shellnut did not say whether he is planning any legal action in connection with the arrest, but did offer that he has “serious questions” about why members of the Toronto Police Service did not provide medical attention to someone with an “obvious head injury.”

A spokesperson for Toronto Police Service said they “can’t respond to that allegation because of the SIU investigation.”

The Toronto Police Association (TPA) said it will fully support its members throughout the SIU investigation.

“As this matter unfolds, we encourage everyone to wait for all the evidence to come out rather than accepting narratives that may be incomplete, inaccurate, or driven by outside interests. As a reminder, when an officer tells you to stop, you should stop,” TPA said in a statement.

Shellnut, meanwhile, said that in addition to a concussion, the cyclist sustained a wound to the forehead in the course of the arrest, and his family took him to the ER later that night.

The cyclist was issued three provincial offence notices following his arrest. CP24 has confirmed that he was ticketed for failure to stop, failure to identify, and disobeying a stop sign under the Highway Traffic Act.

Toronto police said the enforcement was undertaken in response to “numerous community complaints regarding cyclists failing to obey the posted stop sign at the intersection.”

The video footage of the arrest was posted by Shellnut on social media earlier this week and has since been widely reshared.

In it, an officer is seen sprinting across a bike lane on Queen’s Quay after a cyclist. Moments later, a trio of uniformed police officers is observed surrounding a male on the ground who is heard groaning and shouting. The officers appear to be holding down and handcuffing that person. At one point, he is heard asking, “What did I do wrong?” to which one of the officers there responds, “You didn’t stop.”

Officers’ actions ‘super questionable’: lawyer

Shellnut spoke out about the officers’ actions on Monday afternoon, saying that it could amount to a potential use of excess force.

“You just don’t see arrests for Highway Traffic Act infractions resulting in someone being tackled to the ground and jumped on by a bunch of officers,” he said at the time.

The union representing Toronto’s police officers, however, has taken issue with Shellnut’s characterization of the incident.

“As a cycling advocate, a better use of your time would be to help educate all road users of the law, which includes obeying all traffic signs and stopping when ordered to do so by police,” the Toronto Police Association, which represents more than 8,500 uniformed and civilian members of the Toronto Police Service, wrote in a June 2 post on X.

“In this case, that did not happen. With the information we have, we believe our members were lawfully entitled to use the amount of force necessary to bring the situation under control. Our advice to all road users is simple: when an officer tells you to stop, stop.”

Clayton Campbell, the association’s president, spoke further about the issue on Wednesday morning with Newstalk 1010’s Jerry Agar, reiterating that police were doing enforcement at that location in response to complaints from the community.

He said the cyclist’s failure to comply with officers’ orders to stop “escalated the situation, not my members.”

“If a police officer tells you and directs you to stop in a car, stop on a bicycle, you need to stop. If you want to challenge it later on, that’s fine,” Campbell said.

Protest Ride held

Members of the cycling community, along with supporters, gathered at Little Norway Park Thursday night for a “Stop Anti-Cyclist Violence Protest Ride.”

The demonstration, which coincides with Bike to Work Day, got underway at 6 p.m.