If the province of Quebec was a high school student, it would qualify for special-ed placement along with remedial assistance from carefully selected pedagogues.
According to French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,” which sums up Quebec and its myopic instability on the enigmatic issue of racial profiling.
In 2003, the Quebec Human Rights Commission began receiving complaints about racial profiling and was among the first institutions to reflect upon and raise awareness about it as a form of discrimination.
In 2004, the SPVM developed a policy “Relations avec les citoyens” (citizen relations policy) to maintain public trust and enforce the laws, particularly under the Canadian and Québec charters of rights and freedoms, as well as the Code of ethics of Québec police officers.
This policy prohibits racial and social profiling while allowing police to use criminal profiling, and was updated in 2012.
In 2005 The Commission adopted a definition of racial profiling, which has since been recognized by the courts and by the SPVM.
It reads: Racial profiling is any action taken by one or more people in authority with respect to a person or group of persons, for reasons of safety, security or public order, that is based on actual or presumed membership in a group defined by race, colour, ethnic or national origin or religion, without factual grounds or reasonable suspicion, that results in the person or group being exposed to differential treatment or scrutiny.
Racial profiling includes any action by a person in a situation of authority who applies a measure in a disproportionate way to certain segments of the population on the basis, in particular, of their racial, ethnic, national or religious background, whether actual or presumed.
In 2009, The Commission launched an extensive public consultation to find ways of countering racial profiling.
And it produced a report in 2011 containing more than 90 recommendations.
Between 2012 and 2014 the Montreal police initiated their own action plan.
However, a report accessing the action plan a year later found it had been ineffective in addressing the issue.
It revealed that officers did not get enough sensitivity training, that there was also a serious lack of funding for programs meant to repair tensions between visible minorities and police officers, that the SPVM keeps no centralized database of the number of racial or social profiling complaints filed against them.
In 2018 in response to the SPVM’s strategic plan on racial and social profiling, the Commission criticized the lack of published data on the presumed racial affiliation and social condition of the individuals involved in police interventions, data that would provide a more accurate picture of the phenomenon.
It was an important recommendation made by the Commission in 2011, and one which has been reiterated many times since.
In 2020 the Commission published a review of the implementation of its 2011 recommendations, noting that the majority of those recommendations have not been implemented or have only been partially implemented.
And called once again, on the government to adopt a Quebec policy to fight against systemic racism and discrimination.
Decades later, absolutely nothing has changed.
Racial profiling is now one of the most important and controversial issues facing the Canadian criminal justice system.
In Quebec, Fo Noemi CRARR’s experiences in litigating against racial profiling and racial discrimination show that the justice system here is still resistant to anti-racism lawsuits and racial equality. This means that racist behavior by police is, in some ways, protected by the legal system.
In 2021 Alain Babineau, a retired RCMP officer and McGill law graduate, was hired by Montreal’s commissioner on Racism and Systemic Discrimination to assist in promoting change within the police force.
Police Brotherhood President Yves Francoeur was among many who questioned and advocated against the choice of hiring Babineau.
On October 26, 2022, Quebec Superior Court Judge Michel Yergeau ruled that random traffic stops by police are a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
He argued that the stops impacted Black people more than other groups: “Racial profiling does exist,” Yergeau said. “It is not a laboratory-constructed abstraction. It is not a view of the mind. It is a reality that weighs heavily on Black communities. It manifests itself in particular among Black drivers of motor vehicles.”
A 22-year-old Black man, Joseph-Christopher Luamba, ignited the process after he told the court that he had been stopped by police approximately 10 times without valid reasoning since he first got his driver’s licence in 2018.
Yergeau wrote in his ruling, “The preponderant evidence shows that over time, the arbitrary power granted to the police to carry out roadside stops without cause has become for some of them a vector, even a safe conduit for racial profiling against the Black community.”
Allegations of racial profiling seems to be taken as a personal affront or challenge to every cop. What is even more disheartening with the police union is that when a police officer is brought up on charges, there is a full court press in the officer’s defense. It does not seem to matter what the charges are. In some cases, uniformed officers have packed courtrooms, on the rare occasions where charges have been laid.
Now-retired, Montreal police Chief Sylvain Caron said he was committed to eliminating racial profiling by his officers and acknowledged systemic racism was a problem. Additionally, nine Black Montreal police officers signed a letter calling on their union president Yves Francoeur to acknowledge the existence of systemic in the force, especially after he downplayed the issue in several interviews. In the letter, the officers say they were “surprised” to hear Francoeur saying that he does not believe there is systemic racism in the force.
It is plain to see that Montreal police have a different reality, and that definition and intention are issues of blatant contention.
While there has been some degree of progress, Blacks cannot afford to rest.
The Police Brotherhood must be made aware that the most significant change lies within their membership range.
Aleuta continua—– The struggle continues.
