A Vancouver Indigenous carver is alleging police assaulted him because someone called police because his teething daughter was crying on the bus Aug. 26.
The Vancouver Police Department (VPD), however, said they received a call about a baby’s safety after it fell out of a stroller and that the father was defiant when officers arrived on scene.
Alex Mountain, 50, told Glacier Media he was on a bus heading into East Vancouver with his child when someone called the VPD because the baby was crying.
He said he got off the bus to find multiple police officers, one of whom stopped him.
“I turned around and walked away,” Mountain said. “I told him I did nothing wrong, so you can’t hold me. That’s when he slammed me onto the ground.”
Mountain said the stroller then went flying and the seven-month-old flew out of it.
He said he and a female officer both caught the child.
“I would never let my daughter fall out of her stroller,” the member of Vancouver Island’s KwAGiulth Nation said. “It irritates me. Why do people judge me?”
Mountain’s partner, Mary Duncan, said similar incidents have happened multiple times. And, now that it has escalated to violence, she fears what might happen next.
“Another day of people judging Alex and asking him why and where he got a white baby from. Ridiculous,” Duncan, 32, said. “This is the sixth or seventh time the cops have been called but the first time things escalated to violence.”
“It's really hot out and the baby is teething so she's been really whiny the past few days,” Duncan told Glacier Media.
She noted she rushed to the scene in a cab.
“Alex got his head kicked in and he thinks his shoulder is dislocated again,” she said, adding when she arrived, Mountain was in handcuffs.
“He has a huge gash in his eyebrow/forehead with huge road rash and bruises on his arms and shoulders.”
Mountain sometimes has his daughter with him while he is carving in Gastown. He frequently has to deal with people calling police, he said. Things are fine when older officers who know him arrive but it’s a different story when younger officers attend, he says.
In this case, Duncan said, “the officer told me Alex wasn’t qualified to take care of our baby.”
The couple is now considering filing a complaint about the situation.
“I did nothing wrong,” Mountain said.
VPD response
VPD spokesman Sgt. Steve Addison told Glacier Media police received a 911 call Saturday afternoon from a woman who saw a baby fall out of a stroller and strike the ground near Commercial Drive and Kitchener Street.
“The witness reported that the baby was crying, that the baby’s father appeared frustrated, and that the baby’s father was struggling with the child,” Addison said. “Believing there was a potential child in danger, we immediately sent officers to investigate.”
He said officers located the man and a seven-month-old baby near Commercial Drive and East Hastings Street.
“When the officers tried to speak with man, he became defiant and tried to walk away with the child. Given the information that had been reported to us by a witness, we could not simply allow the man to leave without first checking the welfare of the child,” Addison said.
But, Addison said, the man repeatedly refused to comply with the officers' direction to stop and officers had to physically restrain him by putting him in handcuffs and briefly placing him on the ground so he could not walk away.
“During the handcuffing process, the man sustained an abrasion to his forehead,” Addison said. “Had the man stopped to speak with us and complied with our lawful directions, there would have been no need to physically restrain him or place him in handcuffs.”
Addison said officers offered to have the man’s injury checked out by an ambulance, but he declined.
Duncan confirmed that, saying Mountain is never taken seriously at hospitals and won't go.
And, Addison said, after police spoke with the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD), and being satisfied that the child was not in immediate danger, the man was permitted to proceed after the child’s mother arrived and agreed to help them both get home.
“We have referred the matter to MCFD for review,” Addison said.
Racial profiling allegations
Duncan, however, believes people call police because Mountain is Indigenous.
“I feel so infuriated for Alex because he is being racially profiled and basically accused of kidnapping a random baby,” she said. “Not to mention all the snide comments he gets every single time he takes his daughter out with him: ‘Who's baby is that? What are you doing with a baby?’”
“This is such disgusting and malicious behaviour that Alex faces every single day because he is an Indigenous male,” Duncan said. “Every time these people call . . . they should have to be held accountable and should have to face consequences for malice and making false police reports.”
Glacier Media has reached out to the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs for comment.
Grandfather assault in 2022
In September 2022, a Heiltsuk Nation grandfather and his granddaughter reached a multi-pronged settlement with the Vancouver Police Board after the pair was mistakenly suspected of fraud and handcuffed by VPD officers in 2019 outside a downtown Vancouver Bank of Montreal branch.
The settlement included undisclosed damages paid to Maxwell Johnson and granddaughter Torianne and an admission from the police board that the two arresting officers discriminated against the pair because of their Indigenous identity.
There, on Dec. 20, 2019, Johnson was attempting to open a joint account at the Burrard Street branch of BMO with his granddaughter. Both provided their Indian status cards to the bank employee. Johnson had recently deposited $30,000 in an existing account.
The branch manager didn’t believe the pair’s purpose at the bank, suspected they were attempting to commit fraud and contacted police. Johnson and his granddaughter were led outside by two constables and handcuffed on a sidewalk.
Part of the settlement included the police board creating a position for an officer to review complaints related to Indigenous peoples and make recommendations to ensure police policy is not racist to Indigenous peoples.
It also included a requirement for the board to post an annual report on its website on the number and nature of complaints related to treatment of Indigenous peoples and how they were addressed.
Vancouver Police Board spokesman Jason Kuzminki said he would follow up on the Mountain issue.
