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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife family is accusing a municipal enforcement officer of rough treatment of a grandmother driving her grandchildren to the Santa Claus Parade.

The family members were on their way to a downtown home to watch the Nov. 17 parade, said the children's mother, when the grandmother and two children, ages 11 and four, encountered heavy traffic and barricades along the parade route.

The grandmother, 55, pulled up behind a car parked near a barricade, according to the mother, who was not present and gave Yellowknifer her version of events based on conversations with her mother. While turning her vehicle around, the grandmother was approached by two bylaw officers on foot, the mother said.

According to the children's mother, one of the officers told the grandmother that she was driving recklessly and was under arrest. The grandmother then pulled out her cellphone to call her husband who was nearby, at which point the officer allegedly took the cellphone from her and threw it on the dash of the vehicle.

The grandmother eventually retrieved her cellphone, but her daughter said the bylaw officer then grabbed the phone from her mother a second time, again throwing it into the car. He then reportedly opened the driver's door of the vehicle and attempted to pull the grandmother out, but she was buckled in and could not move.

By this point, both of the children were in tears, as was the grandmother. The altercation apparently ended with the bylaw officer demanding the grandmother's driver's licence, which he did not return. He then told the woman to park her car and get off the road, which she did.

Upon arriving at the house where other family members had gathered for the parade, the grandmother's husband contacted RCMP, who later returned the woman's driver's licence.

The grandmother and her daughter have both requested anonymity for this story.

Nalini Naidoo, director of communications and economic development for the city, declined to comment on Monday and again on Thursday, other than to confirm that the matter is being investigated by the RCMP.

Yellowknife RCMP Staff Sgt. Brad Kaeding would not speak about the incident either, stating detachment policy directs staff not to comment on open investigations unless charges have been laid.

The mother said her children have been scarred by the event.

"My son is very traumatized," she said, adding her four-year-old son has been having night terrors and becomes afraid when he hears sirens, saying that the police are coming to get grandma.

The woman said she has explained to her children that it was not the police who were involved in the incident but said it is a difficult thing to explain, especially for her son. She said her 11-year-old daughter told her that when the bylaw officer tried to pull her grandmother from the vehicle, the other officer came around to the passenger side of the car and held her door closed.

"The most traumatic thing for them was watching this big man grab a hold of her grandma," the mother said. "They saw violence."

The mother is awaiting word of the police investigation, and said she hopes action is taken to ensure municipal enforcement officers are trained to control situations, not aggravate them further.

"I think it was a total abuse of power," she said. "I'm not even sure why my kids had to witness that at a Santa Claus parade."

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