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Richmond rally planned to support nursing student dragged and stepped on

Protests next Saturday are being organized in Richmond and across B.C. to support a nursing student who was dragged and stepped on by a police officer during a wellness check.
Justice for Mona
Justice for Mona rallies will be held in multiple cities simultaneously across B.C. Photo: Mona Wang/Instagram

Protests next Saturday are being organized in Richmond and across B.C. to support a nursing student who was dragged and stepped on by a police officer during a wellness check. 

The Justice for Mona Wang rallies will be held July 11 in Richmond, Vancouver, Surrey and Kelowna.

“Show your support and protest for better wellness checks and accountability for police misconduct,” reads a notice for the event.

A surveillance video released late last month shows RCMP Const. Lacey Browning dragging Wang – a nursing student at UBC Okanagan – down the hallway and stepping on her head, during a wellness check at her Kelowna apartment in January.

According to the upcoming protest event page, improvement is needed in the wellness check process, so that “specialists with psychiatric or mental health training can work alongside police officers in those operations.”

The protest will take place from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Richmond’s Minoru Park, while the simultaneous rallies will be held at Vancouver’s Art Gallery Plaza, Kelowna’s Stuart Park and Surrey’s RCMP headquarters.

In addition, a petition in support of Mona Wang, launched two weeks ago, has since accumulated over 350,000 signatures as of July 5.

“We are calling on the RCMP and the Canadian Government to fire Officer Lacey Browning and charge her with assault,” said the change.orgpetition.

“We need to do better for our citizens struggling with their mental health.”

Meanwhile, Richmond residents took to the streets on July 4 to support Mona Wang and to protest against police brutality.

Protesters started at Brighouse Park and marched down No. 3 Road towards Richmond Public Library’s Brighouse Branch.

-with files from Kirsten Clarke and Nono Shen