Former Montreal officer cleared in Nicholas Gibbs killing suing ethics commissioner

The family of Nicholas Gibbs speaks to the media during a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018, in Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

A former Montreal police officer who was cleared of wrongdoing after killing a Black man during a 2018 intervention is suing the police ethics commissioner for about $1.2 million, alleging a five-year delay in rendering a decision caused permanent psychological harm.

In a statement of claim filed at the Montreal courthouse June 2, Philippe Bertrand says he developed post-traumatic stress and was “destroyed by the agony of having to wait far too long to find out what will become of him as a police officer.”

Bertrand shot 23-year-old Nicholas Gibbs five times in August 2018 after police responded to a call about a fight between two men on the street. 

Quebec’s independent police watchdog investigated the shooting and the police ethics commissioner received a complaint accusing Bertrand of using excessive force. 

Alexandre Popovic, an anti-police brutality activist, filed the complaint after watching a video of the shooting. 

Popovic is named in Bertrand’s lawsuit and is described as “combative, if not quarrelsome” and “biased by his all-out anti-police activism.”

In an interview, Popovic said he was exercising his rights when filing the complaint and accused Bertrand of attacking his reputation. 

The ethics commissioner’s office changed its rules in 2023, requiring someone to be a direct witness or participant in an incident or a representative of someone directly affected in order to file a complaint.

According to the watchdog’s investigation report, Gibbs had a knife and verbally threatened officers. Police first used a stun gun and pepper spray to subdue him. 

The report says Gibbs held on to the knife and kept walking toward officers before Bertrand shot him. Videos released by Gibbs’ family showed police yelling at Gibbs in French to stop moving, while Gibbs spoke English. 

The video, which recorded the final moments of the police intervention, showed Bertrand shooting Gibbs five times. The final two shots came while Gibbs had his back turned to officers and was walking away. It is difficult to determine whether Gibbs had a knife in the video. 

Gibbs was pronounced dead in hospital. His family said he had been struggling with his mental health and was vulnerable.

He had three children under the age of six at the time of his death.

Gibbs’ family, who sued the city of Montreal for about $1.1 million in 2018, said police did not try to de-escalate the situation. They wrote in their lawsuit that Bertrand “could not sincerely believe that this was the necessary force.”

The family’s lawsuit also alleges Bertrand and his colleagues did not follow protocol, which says that when a person is injured by a firearm used by an on-duty officer, the officers involved must withdraw from the scene as soon as possible and draw up a report. The watchdog then launches an independent investigation.

The family says the officers took statements of witnesses and family members and submitted these statements before releasing the witnesses. They say witnesses were met by Montreal police before the officers involved reported to the watchdog, which is against protocol.

The allegations in the lawsuits launched by the family and by Bertrand have not been tested in court.

Quebec’s director of criminal and penal prosecutions said in 2021 it would not file any charges against Bertrand and the watchdog closed the investigation on Dec. 14 of that year. The ethics commissioner formally rejected Popovic’s complaint in May 2023.

Under Quebec’s Police Act, the ethics commissioner is protected from civil liability for actions performed in good faith. But Bertrand’s lawyer, Yanick Péloquin, argues the delay between the end of the watchdog’s investigation and the rejection of the complaint was unreasonable.

The Canadian Press reached out to the ethics commissioner for comment but did not hear back at time of publication.

Though he was cleared of wrongdoing, court documents say Bertrand will never be able to resume his functions as a police officer because of the “long-term psychological consequences” of the incident and its aftermath. 

The documents say the job was a core part of Bertrand’s identity and sense of social belonging, which he must now grieve. 

Bertrand also claims to have been deeply affected by the media attention the shooting received and having been associated with other cases of police brutality and systemic racism. 

The documents say Bertrand’s marriage became strained. He also experienced symptoms related to post-traumatic stress, including insomnia, memory and concentration issues, tics, shakiness and “constantly feeling vulnerable.”

“(Bertrand) suffered a severe loss of self-esteem and marked sense of diminished masculinity,” his lawyer wrote in the suit.

He is asking the ethics commissioner to pay him lost wages and moral and punitive damages for a total of $1.18 million.

The proceedings for the Gibbs family’s lawsuit are ongoing but were paused after Bertrand claimed he was not fit to testify.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2026.

Erika Morris, The Canadian Press