March for 19-year-old international student shot by Winnipeg police

More than 100 people gathered at Union Station downtown Saturday to demand justice for the university student from Nigeria fatally shot by Winnipeg police on New Year’s Eve.

Afolabi Opaso, 19, was allegedly experiencing a mental-health crisis when he was killed on Dec. 31, 2023.

BACKGROUND: 19-year-old armed with knives fatally shot by police near U of M campus: WPS

“Mental health is not a crime. Being Black is not a crime. Would it have happened otherwise if it wasn’t a Black guy? That is the message,” said Vera Keyede, president of the Nigerian Association of Manitoba.

Police have said officers responded to a call about someone acting erratically at an apartment, were confronted by a man armed with two knives and one officer shot him.

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Jean-René Dominique Kwilu, the lawyer for Opaso’s family, says people who were in the apartment called police and said Opaso was having a crisis but was not a threat to anyone.

Opaso’s family and others are looking for answers as to why the call to police was not treated as a mental health situation, which could have allowed a mental health expert to join the response. The police force, the city and health officials started a program two years ago that allows a specialized mental health clinician to attend wellness checks along with officers.

“It also echoes with many international students right now,” said Kwilu, who also co-organized Saturday’s march. “They’re fearful in terms of security, students around campus of just what took place, what happened.”

Kwilu says the march was not just about Opaso, whose nickname is Zigi-Pink, or the Black community – it’s about safety for everyone. He adds the people marching are calling for all levels of government to listen.

“Make sure that this serves as a greater opportunity for systemic change and hopefully some legislative change to make sure this type of tragedy doesn’t happen again,” he said.

“The community wanted to be out, to make sure that we’re looking for justice. For accountability. But also to take a broader perspective in terms of what many community members have been fighting for in terms of police accountability. For officers to be wearing body cameras and pushing for (a) civilian-led crisis team.”

Shegum Olude, a Nigerian-Canadian father who marched Saturday, says he’s devastated for the family and can only imagine what it’s like to lose a son.

“I think the show of support would help re-establish that Manitoba is a safe place for everyone,” said Olude, who immigrated to Canada from Nigeria 30 years ago. “We do not want what’s happening in the south to happen here.

“We can’t deny that Canada is a safe place generally, but once in a while you have incidents like this that throw the whole community and we have to reassure ourselves that everything will be OK, and we will ride through this and things will be normal again.”

Kwilu says the Opaso family now has custody of the body, but funeral arrangements are on hold while family members wait for their visas to be approved to come to Winnipeg. Letters of support have been sent by MPs to possibly expedite the process.

Many in attendance Saturday held up signs, some of which were passed out by organizers. Keyede believes many people showed up to march because “nobody’s happy.”

“That sent a shockwave through the community of the 31st of December,” she said. “Somebody already aspiring to see the first of January. Somebody that has plans for the new year, 2024. For his life cut short like that, it’s sad, it’s sickening and it’s disheartening.”

Keyede anticipates Saturday’s march was the first of many, not only for the Black community but for everyone who wants to call for justice.

“I was a bit emotional,” she said. “Emotional in the fact that we all stand for justice. That what happened to Mr. Afolabi Stephen Opaso could have happened to anybody. He’s a human being. Any human would want to stand for justice. Any woman, anybody that has human feeling would want to question what happened. Why did it happen? Should this… have been avoided?”

“What we’re hoping for (is) just a message (to) get across to the government, to police, that this is not just a Black people issue,” added Kwilu, who’s also president of the Manitoba chapter for the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers.

Nigerians in Winnipeg were not alone in the march. Many from other communities joined, including the Palestinian community and its supporters, who held a march earlier in the day then decided to cut theirs short and join the march for Opaso in a show of solidarity.

“We heard that this rally was going about the same time,” said Ramsey Zeid, president of the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba. “It’s important for us as human beings to stick together. As humans, as brothers and sisters, to have each others backs and to support each other when there’s been a wrong.”

Earlier this month the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba (IIU) handed off the investigation to the Alberta Serious Incident Response team due to a possible perceived conflict of interest, as one of the officers involved in the shooting is a close relative of an employee of Manitoba Justice. The investigation is still ongoing.

–With files from The Canadian Press