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The Fifth Estate - Season 51 Episode 11 -Last Breath
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00:00This program contains mature subject matter, coarse language, and violence. Viewer discretion is advised.
00:09I mean, take this shit out of my face!
00:12On this edition of The Fifth Estate...
00:15I can't read!
00:17Spithoods. Controversial devices used on inmates, patients, and even children.
00:25They've been banned in some parts of the world.
00:28Amnesty International labeled them as tools of torture.
00:32Yet they're used right here, in every Canadian province and territory.
00:43But their use can turn deadly.
00:45We need justice!
00:47I never heard about a spithood until the incident with my brother.
00:52Her brother died here, at this Montreal prison.
00:56Kids are like, oh my God, that could be me.
00:59Police have control of me to the point where I lose my life.
01:03So who's regulating how they're used?
01:05Here in Quebec, the National Police Academy wasn't training at all.
01:10And who's accountable when things go wrong?
01:12I said, I can't breathe.
01:14No!
01:15I was sure I was going to die.
01:19No one is keeping track.
01:21There's no accountability because all of this stuff is being buried and being kept a secret.
01:26We reveal how, despite mounting evidence of the dangers, Canadian institutions continue to use spithoods, largely unchecked.
01:35I'm Brigitte Noël. This is The Fifth Estate.
01:55A cover of the gauss in which a pig was proven to hate.
01:56We're trying to control.
01:58By the Vermont incorpore.
02:02The Blackhound Table
02:03Open Com elite italic needs to have my司 found the argument very well.
02:07C'était sur l'heure du midi, en avant de chez nous, à Lille. Je vois arriver un véhicule de
02:15police.
02:17Là , il sort deux policiers qui sont dans la porte. Fait que là , je vais répondre.
02:21« Êtes-vous le père de Bruno Pierre Harvey? » J'ai dit « Oui. » Puis là , il m
02:24'annonce qu'il Ă©tait
02:25décédé d'une arrestation policière. Puis, il m'a effondré.
02:35On septembre 6, 2020, Bruno Pierre Harvey died during an altercation with Quebec City Police
02:41at the age of 28.
02:44« J'ai deux véhicules, madame, qui vont venir. »
02:47« C'est sûr qu'il y a des problèmes. Il n'est pas gros. »
02:50Mon frère, 5 pieds et 6, fait à peu près 155 livres. Au moment de l'arrestation,
02:57il était torse nu. Ce n'était pas menaçant.
03:04Mon frère, il ne voulait pas mourir. On peut-tu savoir qui était là , comment ça s'est passé,
03:11qu'est-ce qui s'est passé? Non, ça ne fait rien.
03:15Quelques jours après l'événement, j'ai eu une personne qui est rentrée en contact
03:19avec moi par Messenger, qui m'a dit qu'elle avait été témoin de l'événement, qu'elle
03:26trouvait ça inhumain. Puis après ça, on a appris qu'il y a eu des témoins qui ont
03:30assisté à la scène et qui ont filmé la scène.
03:37Puis on entend sur la scène que mon frère est en détresse, qu'il manque d'air. Puis on
03:45voit un policier qui part, qui va chercher un masque anti-crachat et qui lui met ça sur
03:52la terre. Il nous demande de l'aide. Même il nous appelle à l'aide, moi et mon père.
03:58Aidez-moi! Aidez-moi! Aidez-moi! Aidez-moi! Aidez-moi! Aidez-moi! Aidez-moi! Aidez-moi! Aidez-moi!
04:05Je ne respire plus, je ne respire plus, je ne veux pas mourir.
04:08Aidez-moi! Aidez-moi! Aidez-moi!
04:12Si, là , il n'y aurait pas eu les vidéos, puis s'il n'y avait pas eu les personnes
04:15qui nous ont
04:16communiqué, là , de la façon que ça s'était passé, là , on n'aurait jamais su qu'il y avait
04:21eu un masque, lĂ .
04:37Used by most Canadian police, jails, and even some hospitals,
04:41spit masks are meant to protect staff from bodily fluids.
04:45But in recent years, they've come under intense scrutiny,
04:48with groups like Amnesty International and the UN calling for them to be banned.
04:56Michael Arruda is a retired police officer who's developed an expertise in crisis intervention
05:01and use of force. He's often been called upon as an expert witness by families like Bruno Pierre
05:07Harvey's who believe they were victims of police misconduct.
05:11This is typically a mask that is used. A mesh on top. The bottom part is this.
05:18And it has a rubber band at the bottom that will go around the neck.
05:24And all we see is the person's nose and eyes on top.
05:32What is commonly known as a spit mask, it's a piece of equipment that first interveners like the police,
05:39like corrections officers, or even ambulance might use to restrain somebody from spitting.
05:45If not used properly, it might cause damage or even death.
05:58Mr. Harvey, in the video which was filmed of the intervention,
06:02he said that he had a bad feeling to respirate.
06:04Yes.
06:05And the mask has not been removed?
06:07No.
06:08Is it a mistake?
06:10If someone is in crisis, if someone is not able to respirate,
06:15this is not a question that we won't remove it.
06:20Who does that mean that?
06:22Of course it would have died, of such a way.
06:28All this is a fruity.
06:30All this is Bruno Pierre, with his bike.
06:32Because Bruno Pierre, he is like me.
06:37We really love the bike.
06:42And before he was riding, on was going to have a problem.
06:48It's a lot of big pieces, it's your life that comes to life.
06:54You know, it's your guy, you took it, you cut the cord, and then you took it all.
07:09The cagoule, that's my garçon.
07:15it's been the 6th of September 2020.
07:19Then I realized that there were several other deaths like this,
07:27and that there had nothing changed.
07:29Justice for Nika! Justice for Nika! Justice for Nika! Justice for Nika!
07:35We need justice.
07:38On December 24, 2022, Nika's D'Andre Spring died
07:42after an altercation with staff at a Montreal detention centre,
07:45an incident where he was forced into a spithood.
07:48The 21-year-old shouldn't even have been there.
07:51A judge had ordered his release the day before.
07:58I never heard about a spithood until the incident with my brother.
08:03I never even know that they use things like that for inmates.
08:12He was just friends at school.
08:17Nikos was very quiet.
08:20Like, he was quiet.
08:21He was, like, lovey.
08:23And he liked music a lot.
08:33He used to, like, write his lyrics.
08:51This is the booth.
08:53This is where our kids come and they're able to record for free.
08:59So Nikos used to come here on a regular basis.
09:02He was recording tracks.
09:03You know, he would come and hang out.
09:05He was a part of our other programs.
09:06But his big passion was music.
09:09An unpaid transit ticket when he was a teen catapulted Nikos into the criminal justice system.
09:15Initiating a series of arrests and charges, his family blames on racial profiling.
09:21Check, check.
09:21One, two, one, two.
09:23No.
09:24Check, check, check.
09:25He was later diagnosed with mental health issues.
09:28His last arrest, on December 21st, 2022, was for breaking a court-imposed curfew.
09:34Nikos, I always used to call him, uh, the gentle giant.
09:38Because he was a very big boy for his age.
09:43The day I found out about Nikos passing, um, I was, through social media, I was, like, astonished.
09:52And, again, you know, then understanding as the circumstances coming out, I'm, like, but this doesn't make sense.
10:01I just got, like, this phone call saying, oh, Serafina, your brother's in the hospital.
10:10Well, when they told me that he's gone, it's just the machine showing his vital.
10:18Yeah, that's when everything changed.
10:27Nikos let go.
10:30The machine shut off on its own.
10:33And then, yeah, we didn't have to unplug him.
10:37And then, yeah, I'm sorry.
10:43Yeah.
10:57Nobody prepares you for that.
10:59Kids are like, oh, my God, that could be me.
11:01Nikos used to come and sit in his chair.
11:03He used to be in that booth.
11:05Is that how my future's going to end up?
11:07If I have one mistake or someone, a mistaken identity, I'm in a situation and police have control of me
11:14to the point where I lose my life?
11:17To walk around with that, every time you do see a police car go by or something happen, you get
11:23a certain kind of energy as a black man.
11:25The young man's final moments were captured on prison surveillance.
11:28These videos have never been released to the public, but the family has seen them.
11:33I couldn't finish the video.
11:38I won't wish that on anybody.
11:42Radio Canada journalists were able to get incident reports written by correctional officers, which shed light on what happened.
11:49Staff described Nikos as unstable and struggling to contain his emotions.
11:55A fight breaks out and he's pepper sprayed, then forced into a spit mask.
12:00Hooded and handcuffed, he's then thrown into the shower, where guards pepper spray him again.
12:07When they pull him out, they realize he's no longer breathing.
12:13Is it safe to use a spit hood on a person who's just been pepper sprayed?
12:17No.
12:20On a person who's suffered a head injury?
12:22No.
12:24On a person who's bleeding from the mouth or nose?
12:27No.
12:28On a person who's very much in crisis?
12:30No.
12:31On a person who's being held to the ground by one or more police officers who are applying pressure to
12:36their upper body?
12:37No.
12:40It's a restraining piece of equipment that police use, just like the handcuffs.
12:44There must be a protocol put into place before and after the use of the mask.
12:51Michael Arruda has this expertise because he sought out specialized training in the United States, which doesn't exist in Canada.
12:59During this investigation, we reached out to more than 20 police forces and contacted every province and territory to ask
13:06how spit masks are used in their correctional facilities or hospitals.
13:11We learned that this device is loosely regulated and that protocols can vary widely from one jurisdiction to another.
13:18Here in Quebec, the National Police Academy wasn't training at all.
13:24Coming up.
13:25Like that stuff that I thought that was just the movies.
13:28And then I went to jail.
13:32I knew I was not dying that day.
13:34I was going to breathe no matter what.
13:44This program contains mature subject matter, coarse language, and violence.
13:49Viewer discretion is advised.
14:07This 2021 incident in a Manitoba prison allegedly broke out after a guard made a racist joke.
14:18William Amo, a 45-year-old Anishinaabe man, was killed in the altercation.
14:26Here, he appears to be wearing two spit hoods.
14:31William Amo's case is one of the 17 deaths involving spit hoods identified by our team.
14:36But the actual toll could be even higher.
14:39Is he breathing?
14:42Get the mask off his nose, baby.
14:45The challenges of finding out if a spit hood was used in somebody's death would be,
14:51one, is corrections officers may not record that they use spit hoods, gloves, or any sort of restraint equipment.
15:01Lindsay Jennings is a researcher for tracking injustice, one of the only Canadian organizations actively keeping tabs on deaths that
15:09occur during arrests or in detention.
15:13It's not as easy as everybody thinks it is to put this puzzle together, because all of this stuff is
15:19being buried and being kept a secret.
15:21It's a world she's seen up close.
15:23Like, that stuff that I thought that was just the movies.
15:26And then I went to jail.
15:30When I got out, I was like, I'm going to make a difference.
15:33So maybe part of justice is being able to tell the story.
15:54I absolutely do carry the weight of being a survivor in a situation that's claimed so many lives that it
16:02is my duty to speak to this for the people that we have lost.
16:10It was in May of 2020.
16:12I was struggling with depression.
16:15And my oldest son and I got into an argument.
16:19My son called in a wellness check on me because I was crying in the bathroom.
16:23He called the RCMP, assuming that he could get some help.
16:31They arrived in force.
16:42They asked me to come out, and I asked them to call an ambulance if they were concerned for my
16:49mental health or my well-being.
16:53They actually started hanging on to the door.
16:57When I did come out, they went for their holsters.
17:02And I put my hands up.
17:04Shauna sits down in her living room.
17:06The officers tell her that her son claimed she was suicidal and that they now have to arrest her for
17:11her own protection.
17:12And I said, no, you can't.
17:14And as soon as I stood up, he punched me from the left side and spun my head right around.
17:24And I don't remember falling.
17:27But at that point, I woke up in a pool of blood, face down, with my teeth in front of
17:36me.
17:39As soon as I started screaming, one of the officers called for another officer to go to the car and
17:47get a spit hood.
17:53They pulled over my face.
17:56I was screaming.
18:03I said, I can't.
18:04What are you doing?
18:05I'm bleeding.
18:06I can't breathe.
18:12The RCMP told us spit hoods have been part of their toolkits since 2003.
18:17But officers don't have to report using them, which means the force is keeping little data.
18:22Before they exited the house, with the spit hood on, I actually fainted.
18:31And at that point, they lost control of my body and dropped me down the stairs.
18:53And I was screaming, please, please, I can't breathe.
19:00I was able to manipulate my shoulders because I was cuffed behind my back so that I could bring my
19:10finger up behind me and get a pinky into the corner of the mask and rip it away.
19:21And that's when I was able to breathe again.
19:26And that's when I was able to breathe again.
19:26But I knew I was not dying that day.
19:28I was going to breathe no matter what.
19:30According to RCMP statistics, mental health-related police calls have nearly doubled over the past decade.
19:36A major challenge for law enforcement agencies, who advocates say are still ill-equipped to handle these situations.
19:43If this is what the result is, when a son calls for some mental health help for his mother, who
19:50do we call in times of help if we can't call the RCMP?
19:58The spit hoods tend to be used on individuals who are in some level of significant, both psychological and often
20:06that corresponds to some physiological distress.
20:10This person is not sitting here like you and I, just where someone comes up and says, hey, can I
20:15put the spit mask on you because you're spitting at me?
20:18It's going to be something a little bit more aggressive.
20:26Mon frère, il avait besoin d'aide, puis les gens qui ont appelé le 911, là , c'était pas pour
20:30l'arrĂŞter, c'Ă©tait pour l'aider.
20:33Il y a un homme d'environ quel âge, madame?
20:36Il est dans 30 m, là . On l'a vu vite, là . Il est rentré par la portation. On l
20:41'a dit, on peut t'aider.
20:42C'est pas qu'il y a vu, cette femme.
20:44J'ai des problèmes.
20:45J'ai des problèmes.
20:45Ce qu'on a appris sur le masque anti-crachat, de prime abord, c'est utilisé par les policiers pour
20:52n'importe quelle situation.
20:54Ils n'ont pas de restrictions.
20:56On ne peut pas mettre ça sur la tête de quelqu'un qui est en état de psychose.
20:59Tout ce que ça peut faire, c'est que ça fait monter l'état de la personne en anxiété.
21:06Il a été mis pour quoi?
21:08Je veux dire, il Ă©tait face contre sol.
21:17Le coroner's report states that Bruno-Pierre Harvey died of cardiorespiratory arrest linked to a cocaine overdose.
21:25But the family rejects that conclusion.
21:27They say it fails to take into account the physical toll that a police intervention and a spithood can have
21:34on a person in crisis.
21:37They're not alone.
21:38Experts say it's rare for a spithood to be officially named as a cause of death in these types of
21:44incidents.
21:46It takes the ownership of that individual's health outside of the people who should be responsible for it.
21:54And it blames them.
21:57Emergency physician Matthew Thomas has served as a medical expert in excessive force cases where spit masks were involved.
22:05When someone feels like they're about to die and are going into survival mode, they have this massive release of
22:14adrenaline.
22:18With that comes the elevated heart rate you have, the elevated blood pressure, your pupils will dilate, potential of going
22:27into an acidosis, meaning respiration or metabolism without sufficient oxygen.
22:35The police, they need to be trained for mental illness because all they're trained for is aggression.
22:43They just think like Nikas is some kind of bad kid, but he's not a bad kid.
22:51Nikas Dandre Spring had been diagnosed with schizophrenia a few years before his death.
22:56Court records show authorities were well aware of his mental health struggles.
23:01The system did fail him.
23:03It's so dehumanizing.
23:06The outcome that I've seen when spithoods, pepper spray, maybe being confined or being held down, not being able to
23:16breathe, is death.
23:19And we've seen that with Nikas Dandre Spring, we've seen that with Solomon Fakiri.
23:25Coming up, the heavy cost of seeking justice.
23:29We knew that something did happen.
23:31We didn't know what that something was.
23:33Solomon didn't just roll over and die.
23:40This program contains mature subject matter, coarse language, and violence.
23:44Viewer discretion is advised.
23:53March 2020.
23:54Police in Rochester, New York, get a call about a man in distress.
24:09Daniel Prude, a 41-year-old father of five, is naked, unarmed, and suffering from a mental health crisis.
24:17Officers handcuff him, leaving him face down on the icy street.
24:21Let me go, man.
24:22I got blood on myself.
24:24Get the fuck away from me.
24:26Give me your gun.
24:27I need you.
24:28My mama's blood, they flipping over in the grave.
24:31I mean that.
24:31They pull a spithood over his head.
24:33God bless you.
24:34Let me out.
24:35Get the fuck away from me.
24:36I'm going to stay down.
24:37You're going to stay down.
24:37I'm going to take this shit out of my face.
24:39No, I got him.
24:40I got him.
24:40I'm already in there.
24:41Drag me.
24:41Kill me.
24:42And Jesus, you know what I mean?
24:44Mom.
24:45Stop.
24:46Calm down.
24:47Stop.
24:48Calm down.
24:53As they hold him down against the asphalt, Prude loses consciousness.
24:58He never wakes up.
25:00You good, ma'am?
25:03No, Justin!
25:05No peace!
25:06For the rest of the police!
25:09The death sparks protests.
25:11It's ruled a homicide, yet not a single officer involved is ever charged.
25:16Prude!
25:17Daniel Prude!
25:18Daniel Prude!
25:18Daniel Prude!
25:19After a civil lawsuit, the city of Rochester is ordered to pay 12 million U.S. dollars to
25:25Daniel Prude's children.
25:27I placed a phone call for my brother to get help, not for my brother to get lynched.
25:38In Canada, that kind of settlement is almost unheard of.
25:47But the lack of justice is familiar.
25:50Criminal charges against Canadian law enforcement are also extremely rare.
25:54Case in point, the Fikiri family's quest for the truth.
25:59Suleiman, he was a straight-A student in high school, captain of his football team, played rugby.
26:03In his last year of high school, Suleiman Fikiri gets into a car accident and sustains a traumatic brain injury.
26:10He is then diagnosed with schizophrenia.
26:18On December 4th, 2016, during a psychotic break, he allegedly assaults his neighbour.
26:24They call police and he ends up in jail.
26:26Three days before his tragic death, my dad and I arranged for Suleiman to be transferred to a hospital.
26:31And a judge, to their credit, ordered that transfer, but he never made it because 72 hours later, he was
26:36beaten to death.
26:40On December 15th, 2016, I was sitting in my room, it was a Thursday night.
26:47My sister barges in my door, my sister paladin, and said, Suley's dead.
26:54An incident took place when the guards entered Suley's cell.
26:57That's all we were told.
27:01We knew that something did happen.
27:03We didn't know what that something was.
27:05Suleiman didn't just roll over and die.
27:08And I realized that very quickly, that we have to fight to get to the information.
27:12We had no other choice.
27:13All the documents, all the proof.
27:15That legal battle dragged on for seven years.
27:19A succession of three separate police investigations, none leading to criminal charges.
27:37Then, in 2023, a coroner's inquest allows the family to finally see surveillance footage of Suleyman's last moments.
27:47Part of me wishes I didn't see the video.
27:49The final moments of his life.
27:52And that video haunts me to this day.
27:56This footage revealed, for the first time, that a spit hood was involved in Fakiri's death.
28:06The coroner's inquest gave us a homicide verdict, but almost a decade into his death, we still have not received
28:14criminal accountability.
28:26In 2021, the Harvey family filed a suit against Quebec City Police and paramedics.
28:32They requested $280,000 in damages, but their primary goal was to make first responders change their practices.
28:41What did you do to learn that the policemen of SPVQ didn't have any training for the use of a
28:51mask anti-crash?
28:53Well, it's true that we wanted to fight for it for a formation.
28:58Because we saw in our situation that it just caused to degenerate the situation of my brother.
29:05If there was a formation on the mask, it wouldn't have been put.
29:26After three years, the lawsuit was dismissed.
29:29The judge issued no recommendations concerning first responders' handling of people in crisis.
29:34Quebec City Police refused to comment on both the case and its spit hood policies.
30:04So, when I arrived at the hospital with the RCMP, I was assessed by the emergency room doctor with a
30:11broken nose, broken teeth, and then I was sent to psychiatry.
30:14They released me without any concern.
30:17When we returned home, we found on the floor the packaging for the EZ Transport spit hood and the instructions
30:26on the packaging.
30:27And it says, in bold letters, do not use on person.
30:30That is, bleeding profusely from the nose and mouth.
30:38We learned that the majority of Canadian institutions, the RCMP, federal penitentiaries, most provinces, use the same kind of spit
30:46hood called the transport hood.
30:48It was used on Shauna Blanchard, on Bruno Pierre Harvey, on Nickus Dandre Spring, but also in most deaths that
30:54we were able to document.
30:56It's available in stores and online, so we ordered one.
31:01It cost $25 and arrived in less than a week.
31:05We wanted to know more about the genesis of this product.
31:09Oof, very hot here. It feels like kind of a painter's drop cloth.
31:13Turns out, it was actually one of the first spit hoods on the market.
31:17It's now sold all over the world by distributors like Safariland, one of the biggest police gear suppliers on the
31:23planet.
31:27But its origins are humble.
31:30Yes, it's Bridget from the CBC for John Kaminsky.
31:34It was created in 1999 by a carpet installer who got the idea while watching cop shows.
31:40I mean, how did you go from installing carpet to producing spit hoods?
31:45Me and my wife started the patent on it, and then we had a lawyer end up taking over because
31:50it got too complicated for us.
31:52John Kaminsky told us his product is safer than other methods police may use to stop spit.
31:57They use tape, duct tape. They pull shirts overhead, you know, towels wrapped around people's heads.
32:03But he was unable to say whether the product's safety had been tested before its launch.
32:08Like, at what point did you determine that it worked and that it was safe?
32:12Well, they tested the job for most policemen. I guess they tested it on themselves.
32:18If they followed the instructions on every single hood sold, they're very safe to use.
32:26Safe to use as long as instructions are followed.
32:29Experts warn it's not that simple.
32:32In the chaos of a real-life crisis, these instructions can quickly go out the window.
32:37Yeah, I got one in my pocket.
32:38In every single death our team investigated, the spit hood seems to have been used incorrectly.
32:45More than just random mistakes, we discovered some of these errors are actually baked into the police training itself.
32:52So it knows how I have everything set up.
32:54Take this internal video we obtained from the Edmonton Police through an information request.
32:58Here, a first spit hood is put on incorrectly, followed by the un-recommended application of a second spit hood.
33:06Contacted by the Fifth Estate, Edmonton Police said this video is outdated and that officers are no longer taught to
33:12double up.
33:13But all over the country, lack of proper training has a tangible effect.
33:18Like in this 2007 video of 19-year-old Ashley Smith taken mere months before her suicide in prison.
33:25Here, guards force her into not one but two spit hoods, which they put on backwards and then duct tape
33:31to her body.
33:36There has been little research on the safety of spit hoods, a handful of papers experts call unreliable, as they
33:42fail to account for the hectic conditions of real-life scenarios.
33:46Generally, the studies are pretty limited. They tend to be healthy individuals that are volunteers and tend to not have
33:56probably significant underlying medical conditions.
33:59Meanwhile, other protective methods like masks and visors have been proven safe.
34:04No justice! No peace!
34:06In reality, a first responder with the appropriate PPE, personal protective equipment, should essentially be immune to anybody.
34:15spitting in their direction.
34:21In the last few years, some American police forces have restricted their use of spit hoods, either banning them completely
34:28or prohibiting their use on people in crisis.
34:32In California, the American Civil Liberties Union is currently pressuring the Los Angeles County Sheriff, among others, to change their
34:39policies.
34:41We, at the ACLU, have been negotiating with the county about having very explicit policies on the use of the
34:50spit mask and when it can and cannot be used.
34:53In recent years, there are some jurisdictions in California where the police no longer use it, but that's only because
34:59somebody died and then the family sued and won millions of dollars.
35:04The use of spit hoods has come under scrutiny in several European countries, and while they are used in the
35:10UK, they're classified under torture goods legislation, which means they can't be purchased by the public.
35:16But it's in Australia that national outrage has had the most significant impact.
35:22Coming up, a young child, a teenage boy, footage was captured of him in a mechanical restraint chair with a
35:31spit hood on him as well.
35:33We have found that, in Canada, the spit mask is also used on children. Young teenagers, how do you feel
35:41about that?
35:43Oof.
35:48This program contains mature subject matter, coarse language and violence. Viewer discretion is advised.
36:01These images of a teenage boy, first broadcast by investigative program Four Corners in 2016, sent shockwaves across Australia.
36:13It sort of became a really national sort of focus when footage from an investigative journalist report surfaced of a
36:24youth prison in the Northern Territory.
36:27It's called Dondale, where a young child, a teenage boy who was incarcerated in Dondale, an Aboriginal boy, footage was
36:34captured of him in a mechanical restraint chair with a spit hood on him.
36:44That same year, Australian media also reported on the spit hood related death of an adult inmate.
36:50It caused a heap of national outrage and led to a royal commission process.
36:58Australian Federal Police, along with several jurisdictions or institutions, have since banned or restricted the use of spit hoods, either
37:05entirely or specifically on children.
37:08Amnesty International labeled them as tools of torture.
37:12Tragically, as is often the case, we end up having to respond and react after spit hoods have been used.
37:19And I think it's the same in Canada as well.
37:23Lay down on the ground, put your hands behind your back and do it now.
37:27Okay, are you guys ready?
37:32Shut up!
37:33Much is the same in Canada, including the use of spit hoods on children.
37:37In 2023, our CBC News colleagues published a shocking report on the treatment of teens in lockup.
37:47Which featured these images of 15-year-old Saskatchewan Anishinaabe boy, Matthew Michel, restrained and forced into a spit hood.
37:56This is not an isolated case.
37:59Our team found that spit hoods are allowed on minors in all of Canada, either by the RCMP, in youth
38:05detention centers or in hospitals.
38:08Information obtained from Montreal's Philip Pinel Psychiatric Institute, for instance, reveals they've used these masks on minors more than 250
38:16times in the last decade.
38:18They told us spit hoods are used only in exceptional circumstances and that these incidents often involved the same minors.
38:25We have found that in Canada, the spit mask is also used on children. Young teenagers, how do you feel
38:33about that?
38:35Oof. Again, I say, first of all, we shouldn't use it on children. Because it is a mask and there's
38:46a traumatizing part to it.
38:52It's taken five years to really know the extent of the damage and the psychological damage that's been caused primarily
39:03from the spit hood.
39:06Shauna Blanchard is suing the BC government and the RCMP, alleging negligence and misconduct causing permanent harm.
39:13But the RCMP disputes her version of events. While an independent investigation did find the mask was used incorrectly, they
39:20said use of force was justified by Shauna's aggressive behavior.
39:24No one should ever have to fear the police on a wellness check. There has to be some accountability for
39:31this.
39:31People should not have to wonder if the tools the RCMP are going to use are going to kill them.
39:38And I don't ever want another person to suffocate in a spit hood again.
39:49Very few Canadian institutions have reacted to these incidents.
39:53Our investigation found that so far, New Brunswick is the only province to discontinue the use of spit hoods in
39:59its jails,
40:00a move made only after an inmate died while wearing one.
40:04Meanwhile, our federal prisons don't even track the use of this device, which they consider to be simply personal protective
40:11equipment.
40:12In a message, Canada's former correctional investigator Ivan Zinger told us he'd been trying to engage correctional services on the
40:20risks of spit hoods and lobbying for them to find alternative strategies.
40:24I mean, it's shocking to me that they don't track the use of spit hoods in the prisons in Canada.
40:32I mean, that's a restraint. That's a form of restraint.
40:36All the state prison systems and county jail systems I've ever interacted with using a spit hood would be considered
40:43part of a use of force that requires a report.
40:49I guarantee you that none of the peace officers that I have worked with would ever be excited by the
40:57fact that someone died on their watch.
41:00And so, I don't think it's an us versus them.
41:18For affected families, justice is hard to come by.
41:22Fighting the system is one thing, but proving the specific role of a spit hood in situations where police combine
41:28multiple layers of force is nearly impossible.
41:32I think it would be difficult to point to the spit mask as a cause of death because it is
41:41the setting of prolonged physical duress with multiple factors.
41:48Every December, it brings back all the memories.
42:00Every Christmas is never the same, like, it's never gonna be the same.
42:11I guess one last thing I'd like to say, to make sure that we make Nikas's life mean something, is
42:19for it to have effect and change.
42:23In July 2025, a corrections officer involved in Nikas' death was charged with manslaughter.
42:29His trial and a coroner's inquest are still pending.
42:36Me fighting for justice is not only for Nikas, but for my son as well.
42:44I don't want him to end up in the jail system.
42:53Justice for Nikas and justice for the other people that died so cruelly.
43:06The following segment contains mature subject matter including racist and hateful imagery. Viewer discretion is advised.
43:16I'm Joanna Rumeliotis, coming soon on The Fifth Estate.
43:20We're in Nashville, Tennessee, the music city that helped lead the civil rights movement in the United States.
43:26White power!
43:27White power!
43:28Now a target of a neo-Nazi group.
43:30The greatest danger to our public safety and national security is white nationalist groups like this.
43:35Our investigation reveals a network of extremism, their influence on a fatal school shooting.
43:42We go to Eastern Europe following the money, looking for the Canadians behind a platform profiting off hate.
43:49It's easy to dismiss them, but there's a very powerful monetization happening there.
43:54How do you sleep at night if that's how you're making money? It's shameful.
43:59The fight against censorship or the business of bigotry. Either way, it's exploding.
44:05The fundamental right to free speech is absolute. Hate is very difficult to define.
44:10But when does free speech cross the line?
44:12It's a cancer.
44:14There's a huge abuse of power, abuse of technology.
44:17And what are Canadian authorities doing about it?
44:20It very well might be illegal in Canada.
44:23We need to make it not profitable to be a racist.
44:26That's coming soon on The Fifth Estate.
44:35The Fifth Estate.
44:36The Fifth Estate.
45:09Transcription by CastingWords
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