Canada embarrassed by tense arrest of Senegalese diplomat

General view of Ottawa, the capital of Canada.

Michel Gagnon/Wikimedia Commons

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

In Canada, four days after his police violently molested and arrested a Senegalese diplomat, Canadian diplomacy rose to the front for the first time since the outbreak of this affair which provoked the wrath of Dakar.

“ 

What happened is simply unacceptable

 ,” condemned the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Otawa thus seems to have dropped the police of the city of Gatineau, at the origin of the raid on the Senegalese diplomat, and all this also looks like a catch-up operation on the part of the government of Justin Trudeau.

The Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in fact, says it is “ 

extremely concerned about the alleged treatment of the Senegalese diplomat by the Gatineau police

 ”.

He insisted, explaining that Canada takes its obligations very seriously, under the Vienna Convention, which defines the rules for diplomacy.

Saturday, August 6, at the end of the day, it was the government of the province of Quebec, where the city of Gatineau is located, which announced the opening of an investigation by the police of the Quebec police, following this intervention by the forces of the order " 

which raises questions

 ", he said.

Concretely, it was the Canadian police who went, Tuesday, August 2, to the home of the Senegalese diplomat, following the call of a bailiff.

Officers described an

aggressive

 "

person who injured and punched a police officer in the face and bit another, forcing them to tackle the diplomat to the ground, before detaining her in the back of their vehicle. 

Read also: Canada: the arrest of a Senegalese diplomat denounced by Dakar

The Senegalese government reacted strongly and denounced a " 

racist and barbaric act

" and " 

of rare violence 

".

The Canadian state, which is one of Senegal's main partners, assured good cooperation between the heads of diplomacy of the two countries to settle this matter.

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