In 2014, an Ottawa woman with a 10-month-old baby took a cab to pick up a flight at the Ottawa Airport. On the way, one of Ottawa’s finest, if not the brightest, Constable Jerome Belanger, pulled over the cab, forced the mother out of the car (leaving her baby on the seat), made her kneel on the ground at gunpoint, handcuffed her, and tossed her into the back of his cruiser.

After 18 minutes, he let her go. The suspect he had been looking for, who had allegedly stabbed his common-law spouse, was 1) a man, and 2) of a different race. In Officer Plodspeak, Constable Belanger “established that she was not a suspect in the stabbing.”

The woman made a complaint to the Ottawa Police last April. No doubt due diligence had to be applied to the case, so it took a year for the matter to come before an internal disciplinary inquiry.

But justice was done. The 14-year veteran, who couldn’t tell a man from a woman with a baby, and was racially colour-blind (which in other circumstances would be a positive) was given a penalty.

Ten days loss of pay.

His supervisor said in his ruling: “Police officers must know and understand that there will be consequences when they fall short of expectations.”

Constable Belanger is out there in Ottawa today, serving and protecting. No doubt he’s learned his lesson. As, no doubt, did others before him.