By Dan Laxer
The Suburban
The first moments of a stroke are crucial. In fact, the first 60 minutes are referred to in the medical field as the “golden hour,” when quick reaction and treatment greatly improve a patient’s chances of recovery.
In that crucial time after Neslyne Meus, an auxiliary nurse, suffered a stroke at the wheel of her car, she was arrested and handcuffed, her car searched and then impounded. Meus was then detained at the local police station (PDQ 100/ Centre Opérationnel Est) and accused of driving under the influence of drugs.
Meus is a Black woman. She feels that she was put through “a situation marked by unimaginable racism.” She and her family are taking legal action against the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), with the help of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).
“When the officers saw a Black woman clearly in distress,” Meus said, “they immediately associated me with drugs and illegality, without even having the basic common sense to ask what had happened or if I was okay. To the officers involved, my Black skin was a badge of criminality, and nothing more.”
Their “sheer incompetence and gross negligence,” she added, “could have cost me my life.”
The incident occurred last July 24 around 5 p.m. Meus was driving on Highway 40 near Anjou when she suddenly felt ill and lost control of her car, hitting a concrete barrier, which resulted in a flat tire. She had the presence of mind to drive to the parking lot of a nearby shopping mall, where three young men, also Black, stopped to check on her, offering to help change her tire.
Before they had a chance to do anything to help, four police officers arrived on the scene. The three young men watched helplessly as Meus was handcuffed and pressed up against a police cruiser while officers searched her car and asked if she had drugs on her.
Meus struggled to speak, explaining that she is a nurse. She told the officers that she was not feeling well, and that the handcuffs were hurting her wrists.
At the police station she was subjected to tests – a coordination test, a urine test, and a breath alcohol test for which she was required to inflate a balloon. At the station she had difficulty raising her arms – a symptom of stroke – and was unable to blow into the balloon.
When Meus’ husband, also an auxiliary nurse, arrived to pick her up from the police station five hours later, he recognized her symptoms and rushed her to the hospital.
Why did the police not?
“It is unthinkable in 2025, and even unacceptable, that police officers could be incapable, for hours, of recognizing the symptoms of a stroke,” said CRARR Executive Director Fo Niemi. The incident further illustrates “the urgent need to review police training on racial profiling and intervention with individuals experiencing medical emergencies.”
CRARR will be filing complaints on Meus’ behalf with the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission, and with the Police Ethics Commissioner.
“The credibility of the SPVM regarding diversity and anti-discrimination is at stake,” said Meus’ daughter, Victoria, who is also a nurse. “These officers and their supervisor must be held accountable for these blunders because I could have lost my mother.” n