A Montreal man has filed a lawsuit against the city's police department after he was arrested while displaying an Israeli flag at an international cycling competition, alleging that officers used excessive force and provided an inaccurate account of the incident, CTV News reported.
Daniel Bercovici, 47, is seeking $86,301 in compensatory and punitive damages from the City of Montreal and four police officers in a civil action filed in Quebec Superior Court in late August.
According to the lawsuit, Bercovici attended the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal on September 14, 2025, as a spectator, hoping to cheer on the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team.
He was standing near the foot of Mount Royal holding an Israeli flag when he encountered police officers amid a demonstration opposing the Israeli team's participation in the race.
Pro-Palestinian Arab protesters had gathered at the event, accusing Israel-Premier Tech of being “complicit with the genocidal entity" and engaging in “sportswashing," a term referring to the use of sporting activities to improve an organization's public image.
Bercovici alleges that he was peacefully supporting the team when officers confronted him without justification, forced him to the ground, searched him unlawfully, and placed him under arrest.
The lawsuit accuses the officers of using “excessive force" and further alleges that demonstrators attempted to hit Bercovici with flagpoles while police escorted him away.
Three days after the incident, Bercovici was charged with obstructing a peace officer. He was subsequently arraigned on February 27, 2026.
However, the criminal proceedings took a different turn after his defense obtained video footage of the incident.
According to the civil complaint, a prosecutor reviewed a YouTube video and photographs documenting Bercovici's injuries on July 9, 2026.
On July 28, the prosecution withdrew the charge, “stating expressly that it was doing so because of the video evidence provided by the defence," the lawsuit states.
Bercovici now alleges that the officers' account of his behavior was contradicted by the footage.
Police records obtained by the plaintiff reportedly accused him of “taunts, insults, aggressive brandishing of his flag, ignored warnings and ignored orders."
The lawsuit disputes that description and claims the officers failed to make contemporaneous notes of the arrest. Instead, it alleges that their account was “written from memory, hours after the event."
The complaint goes further, accusing the officers of knowingly interfering with Bercovici's rights and subsequently inventing a justification for their actions.
“The interference with the Plaintiff’s rights was unlawful and intentional: the officers knew the Plaintiff had done nothing unlawful, intervened against him regardless, and then fabricated a justification after the fact."
None of the allegations made in the civil lawsuit have been established in court.
According to the lawsuit, Bercovici sustained injuries to his knees, abrasions, and other physical harm during the arrest.
He also claims to have experienced continuing psychological effects, including “persistent distrust of law enforcement," following the incident.
Montreal police declined to address the allegations, citing the ongoing legal proceedings.
The lawsuit comes against the backdrop of a rise in reported antisemitic incidents in Montreal following the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.
In November 2024, a man described as Arab entered a Jewish-owned business in the city and allegedly threatened to kill its owners while shouting insults directed at Jews and Israel.
The incident followed violent disturbances during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Montreal, where protesters burned an effigy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, threw firecrackers at police, damaged storefronts, and set several vehicles ablaze.
Other incidents included the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in July 2024, when stones were arranged on graves to form a swastika.
In March, a kosher restaurant and an adjacent business were vandalized.
More recently, in July, the Montreal police hate crimes unit opened an investigation into incidents targeting Hasidic Jewish residents in the Outremont and Mile-End neighborhoods.
The Council of Hasidic Jews of Quebec reported that worshippers returning from Shabbat services had been subjected to aggressive harassment by individuals traveling in a vehicle.
The following month, a suspected overnight arson attack caused extensive damage to Nöam, a kosher restaurant in Montreal's Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough.