In his book Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform, Dr. Derrick Bell suggests that policies related to issues of race in the United States have historically been made through unspoken “convergences of interest” sacrifices of right.
Those “silent covenants” ensure that those policies conform to priorities set by policymakers where Blacks and White are the fortuitous losers and winners.
Even without having been able to present any data whatsoever on random motorist stops to show how they are essential to ensuring road safety, and rather than banning them as ordered by Justice Yergeau in the recent Luamba decision, François Legault’s government intends to create “guidelines” for such stops and impose strict controls on police forces.
If the new Bill 14 is adopted, it will give the Minister of Public Security two months to produce guidelines “concerning police street checks and random traffic stops, as well as guidelines for the monitoring of police forces.” Police forces will also be required to publish an annual report outlining the number of stops made in the previous twelve months. But what does that really mean?
Minister Bonnardel says that the objective of the Bill is for the police to be able to collect information on the reasons for the interceptions.
Bonnardel points out that although there is “no systemic racism” in Quebec’s police forces, “there may be cases of profiling by certain members,” and therefore his Bill will include guidelines for police forces the obligation to eradicate stops “with discriminatory motives”. Minister Christopher Skeete says it best: ‘The party is over” adding that “race is not a motive to stop motorists”.
Of course, we all know that Minister Skeete is not saying anything here. Race has never been a motive to stop motorists and if there was ever a party, article 636 of the Highway Safety Code provided that conduit as Justice Yergeau pointed out in his decision.
The measures proposed in Bill 14 are ever so vague and left to everyone’s imagination as to their meaning. I believe it is nothing more than a smoke screen to cover their true intentions, which is the maintenance of the status quo!
We must remember that the words “immigrants”, “refugees” or “migrants” have been used with “criminality” for some time now by certain media in this province, thus directly or indirectly inferring an intersection between these terms. Often the word ” criminality ” is substituted for the word ” violence “, as a synonym.
When a sitting immigration minister says that 80% of immigrants who live in Montreal, “do not work, do not speak French, or do not adhere to the values of Quebec society”, we all know what “dog” he’s whistling for! When certain media sensationalize “street gang” activities and declare that Montreal is the “Far West”, we all know who they are talking about. Listening to these arguments, I really wonder if there is a limit to the populism that is beginning to take hold in this province.
In his book, Dr. Bell also explains that “racial-sacrifice covenants” are policy decisions that “sacrifice the freedom interests of blacks to resolve differences of policy making whites”. Bell’s theory outlines the challenges and disparities that arise when social justice conflicts with political issues.
“Throughout the history of civil rights policies, even the most serious injustices suffered by blacks, including slavery, segregation, and patterns of murderous violence, have been insufficient, standing alone, to gain real relief from any branch of government” (p. 49).”
In the last provincial elections, the CAQ received close to 42% of the votes cast, taking advantage of the division of the vote among the four opposition parties. They have a strong majority and a “law and order” agenda. Premier Legault explains what he believes must be done to deal with crime in “certain areas” of the City of Montreal.
“We said it when we tabled our anti-racism plan that we want and have already put in place measures against racial profiling. However, when we talk about random stops, we must understand that we must let the police do their job”
We all know the areas he is talking about. Let the police do their job? Who ever said they could not? In Bill 14 we therefore have a “silent covenant” between the ruling majority which on the surface seems to bring “restrain” and “control” to policing activities, but one you peel the onion it makes you cry! You then realize that the rights of Black motorists to be protected against disproportionate human rights violations have been sacrificed under the “law and order” rhetoric that “the majority” demands: protection against the “undesirables”.
