Canadian MPs back residency for wrongfully arrested man

Mamadi Fara Camara was wrongfully arrested following an attack on a Montreal police officer

A black graduate student in Canada who was wrongly arrested and detained for six days has received support for permanent residency from parliament.

The House of Commons unanimously voted on Tuesday to recommend that Mamadi Fara Camara, who is from Guinea, be allowed to stay following his ordeal.

The 31-year-old PhD candidate was accused of attacking a police officer but was later exonerated by evidence.

He received an apology but has been struggling to return to his studies.

Mr Camara was pulled over by Montreal police officer Sanjay Vig last month on suspicion that he was using his phone while driving.

As the officer walked back to his patrol car to check Mr Camara's driving documents, he was attacked by a person who took his gun and used it to shoot at him.

Mr Camara called police to report the incident and was initially allowed to leave the scene. But before he could return home, he was stopped again and dragged out of his car to be arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and attempted murder.

He was released on 3 February after surveillance footage showed that someone else was at the scene that day. Two days later, Montreal's chief of police, Sylvain Caron, publicly apologised to him and his family and said that DNA evidence had cleared him as a suspect.

Police, Mr Camara told public broadcaster Radio-Canada, made him feel as if "I am a monster".

He told TV programme Tout le monde en parle on Sunday that the police apology "was a relief, but there are many questions I am asking myself".

"It was a very traumatising episode," he said, adding that he was unable to talk to his family for days.

A lawyer for Mr Camara told the programme that he was considering taking legal action against the police force.

On Tuesday, both the Canadian House of Commons in Ottawa and Quebec's legislature officially called on Canada's immigration minister to grant permanent residency to Mr Camara and his wife, who is currently pregnant with twins, though the call is non-binding.

A lawyer for Mr Camara said the arrest made him interrupt his work overseeing a lab at the Polytechnique Montreal engineering school and that as a result he may not be able to finish his thesis before his student visa expires in May.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault added that Mr Camara has been given permission to settle in the province whenever the immigration ministry approves his residency.