Toronto Criminal Injuries Compensation Board awards woman $4,000

In March 2007 Nimo Gulleid thought nothing of a heated conversation she and another lady were having before stepping onto a TTC bus in Toronto. She didn't notice the bus stopping and Toronto police boarding either until they stopped in front of her.

Gullied was on her way to the University of Toronto where she was a student when her life changed. The police officers in front of her demanded to see the gun she was carrying. She had no idea what they were talking about. The Star quotes Gullied recollection of the event:

"What gun? I don't have a gun," Gulleid said she told police, relaying her version of the events to the Star this week.

Unbeknown to the student the woman she had talked to at the bus stop had told the bus driver that Gulleid was packing a gun. The police grabbed Gulleid, 37, and drug her off the back of the bus at Bloor St. W. and Symington Ave. There people watched as the police pushed her to the ground. As her head scarf came off her head she had the eyes of strangers on her. The police searched her person and dumped the contents of her purse onto the grass. The police did not bother to listen to her side of the story. They also didn't find a gun. There never was one. The police then took the woman to Saint Joseph's Hospital for psychiatric evaluation. They believed that she was a threat to herself or to others. Saint Joseph's Hospital found that the woman has "soft tissue injuries to her arms, neck and back" and she suffered from anxiety and stress. It was at hospital when Gullied was finally informed what had started the incident. That conversation at the bus stop had been over religion. The woman that had told the driver had recently left the Muslim faith. She made a comment that all Muslims were terrorists and gun carriers. Gullied then criticized the woman's 'Christian kindness.' The woman entered the bus after Gullied and told the bus driver that Gullied had a gun and was going to shoot everyone. The bus driver did his job, he called for police protection for the passengers on his bus. Gullied is not angry at the woman though, she blames the police.

"If they had just listened to me on the bus, things would have never gone this far," said Gulleid, now finishing her teacher's college degree. "But the embarrassing thing is how they dealt with me in a public space. How they humiliated me."

Last month the incident was heard in detail in front of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. Guilleid was awarded $4,000 dollars after it was found that even when no gun was found on the Applicant the use of excessive force persisted." Ms. Gulleid she declared a "victim of a crime of assault." The decision had to be based solely on Gulleid's testimony and hospital records. The police refused to share any information concerning the incident. Police records produced by Barry Swadron, Gulleid's lawyer showed that Gulleid was "very loud and aggressive towards the officers" and refused to take her hands out of her pockets. The records also state that she was handcuffed and searched for those around the scene and her own safety. The police said yesterday though there were no requests for information. Gullied didn't have the means to pursue the case. Her friends told her about the compensation board.

"It was not about the money. I had so much anger about how I was treated unfairly, that I had to do something," said Gulleid. "The most painful component was it was by the people who were in a position of authority."