Tag: racial profiling

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Quebec Superior Court in favour of prohibiting police from conducting random traffic stops

The ruling will be implemented within six months. In the meantime, activists are wondering what this means for the fight against racial profiling

On Oct. 25, Quebec Superior Court judge Michel Yergeau ruled the power of the police to stop drivers at random to be unconstitutional and discriminatory, in a challenge brought to court by Joseph-Christopher Luamba. Luamba, a black Montrealer who has been pulled over by the police without reason numerous times, decided to challenge this power, arguing that it violates certain constitutional rights. 

Laura Berger, a lawyer with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said this issue has been on the association’s radar for a long time because of overpoliced communities, namely Black and Indigenous communities, speaking up against racial profiling. The association jumped on the constitutional challenge when Luamba decided to take this issue to court.

“Over the course of a very short amount of time [Luamba] was stopped by the police on different occasions while in a vehicle and he chose to initiate a challenge,” said Berger. “Before [the ruling], the police could stop you if you’re driving even if there is no reason at all and request your license, registration and proof of insurance.”

Berger explained that random traffic stops are disproportionately used to arrest Black and Indigenous drivers when compared to white drivers.

“Even though on its face that power is neutral, what we know from social sciences and experiences of individuals is that this power gets used disproportionately against Black drivers,” said Berger. 

The Concordian spoke with activist and writer Christophe, who wished to remain anonymous, about his experiences with racial profiling while driving in Montreal a month ago. Though he didn’t receive a ticket, for him this is a clear example of how the police in Quebec use their power to act on their personal biases. 

“I’m a six foot Black man who speaks English, I don’t speak French so right away I’m intimidating to them because of my stature and they cannot speak to me so that creates tension,” explained Christophe. “So there’s a lot of different factors and variables that we need to consider. When you give the police this much power, they operate without impunity, they do whatever they want because for them to be punished is very difficult.”

Christophe is skeptical that the recent ruling will change the way the police treat Black and Indigenous people. 

“This decision is not going to change the fact that they can pull people over for any reason they want,” argued Christophe. “They could say ‘we smelled marijuana coming out of your car,’ they could say anything arbitrary.”

While Christophe believes the decision is a start, he argues that police officers needs to be held accountable when instances of racial profiling occur.

“I think we could start by defunding the police, giving them less funds, and start sanctioning them when they pull people over for no reason,” Christophe said. “If you suspend them with pay, they’re never going to change but when you start touching their pockets they’ll straighten themselves.”

Berger admits that, while Yergeau’s decision is not a substantial initiative, it is a necessary one. 

“This decision is not going to end racial profiling from one day to the next but he said that, as a society, we need to show racial profiling to the door and that is one step in the right direction,” she said. “But it is absolutely clear that this decision is not sufficient.”

Berger elaborated that this decision only deals with a very specific case of racial profiling and that racial biases, on the other hand, affect all aspects of policing. 

“We know that at every juncture of the judicial police system […] there are race-based disparities at every stop especially for Black and Indigenous folks,” said Berger.

However, for Berger this decision fits into a broader movement propelled by activists and communities speaking out. She says that even though this decision will not stop racial profiling overnight, it could inspire more changes in this direction.

“We have seen an increasing amount of research that highlights these disparities, we have seen recommendations across government bodies,” said Berger. “This helped inform [Yergeau’s] decision and I think it can be used outside of this specific context, other courts might take inspiration, policy-makers might look at these findings to try to incorporate them.”

The Superior Court’s Oct. 25 ruling will come into effect in six months in order to give the government and the police enough time to respond to the changes.

Graphic by Carleen Loney

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Innocent man arrested without motive?

CARLEEN LONEY/The Concordian @shloneys

Calling the police into question and their ability to do their job right

A man named Brice Dossa was handcuffed by Montreal police on Thursday, Nov. 3 in the parking lot of Montreal’s Central Market. Police suspected him of stealing a vehicle which was later proven to be his own. The plainclothes Detectives who specialise in car thefts, however, were unable to release Dossa immediately because they had misplaced the keys to their handcuffs and needed backup officers at the scene to release Dossa.

In a video that has since gone viral, Dossa is seen asking officers if he was arrested because he’s Black. While the two officers deny that this unjustified arrest has anything to do with race, many on social media are concerned that this is just another case of racial profiling.

If not, why was the man suspected of car theft and arrested for it by police, prior to the officers verifying who the vehicle belonged to?

In the questionable sequence of events which led up to Dossa’s wrongful arrest, the unfortunate historical trend in which the Black community is faced with unwarranted and unjust policing has, yet again, resurfaced in the headlines.

The video segment of the arrest is truly abhorrent. It calls into question these cops’ ability to perform their duties. 

One major inconsistency in the officers’ discretion was that the car theft under investigation on Nov. 3 involved a vehicle which was reported to have visible signs of damage. However, CBC independently confirmed that Dossa’s car showed no traces of such damage. Yet, when Dossa arrived at the scene where the police were still examining his vehicle for evidence, they promptly arrested him.

Dossa claims he is left traumatized by the experience, which could easily have been avoided with proper due diligence from the police. This puts into question whether law enforcement can ensure equal treatment for all. 

Ironically, this event comes shortly after the Quebec Superior Court ruled in a racial profiling case that police could no longer pull over drivers without a valid reason, as it constitutes a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom. Officers who are not dutifully impartial in service to the law might finally incur sanctions when these newly-established regulations become viable six months from now.

Meanwhile, instances of police brutality and racial profiling frequently continue to make headlines, yet our premier continues to deny the existence of systemic racism and bias. 

As he claimed in 2020, when addressing protests in response to George Floyd’s murder, “I think that there is some discrimination in Quebec, but there’s no systemic discrimination.” More recently, during the last electoral campaign, Legault again reiterated his stance that systemic racism does not exist. 

It is appalling that the government or law enforcement institutions in this province refuse to acknowledge the pernicious consequences of systemic racism. The foundation for such beliefs — and the inaction that follows — normalizes and legitimizes the abuse of power by the state in ways that undermine democracy, justice and equality for all citizens.

Following Dossa’s wrongful arrest, new policies need to not only be incorporated within the practices of law enforcement, but also should be made effectively operational.  Let’s hope that the recent decision ruled by the Quebec Superior Court will yield change in the years to come, so that everyone is guaranteed equal freedom and safety.

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Lawyer speaks out alleging Montreal police racially profiled his client following a stop and search over his jacket

“I’m confident that if [he] were white, that interception would not have been the same way,” said Fernando Belton

On Jan. 17, Andy Basora was stopped by two police officers in front of his house in Villeray–Saint-Michel for wearing a red North Face jacket similar to one reported stolen over a month ago. A video of this incident was filmed and posted on social media, where it went viral.

Basora’s lawyer Fernando Belton explained that before the video was taken, Basora was walking home from the pharmacy with his brother when he saw a police car driving in the opposite direction.Then, the police car made a U-turn and approached Basora as he was entering his home.

The video begins with two officers approaching Basora. One officer, who wasn’t wearing a mask, tells him to follow them. When Basora asks why, the officer informs the young man that he is wearing a jacket that has been reported stolen. He then grabs him by the shoulder, brings him in front of the police car, and starts going through his pockets and asking questions.

According to Belton, the encounter lasted five minutes before the police officers realized Basora was not responsible for the theft. Belton claims that his client, who is of Dominican ethnicity, was subject to racial profiling.

“There’s the official answer from the police department, and there’s actually what you see on the video, which I think speaks clearly about the real motive of the interception,” Belton pointed out.

“I’m confident that if Andy were white, that interception would not have been the same way,” he added.

In a Twitter thread, Montreal police explained that the jacket Basora was wearing is the same as the one stolen during a violent mugging on Dec. 19, 2020. The tweets also explain the events leading to the altercation with Basora and why one officer was not wearing a mask. The SPVM claims that some situations require “quick and immediate intervention,” and wearing a mask is not “always possible.”

The SPVM police did not return a request for comment.

Belton insists that the officers in the video, who are the same officers that originally reported the robbery, had no reason to question his client.

“Does the police officer intercept every young person that they see with a red North Face coat? Which is, by the way, a coat that is really popular among the youth.”

He also highlights that the police officers violated his client’s rights because neither possessed a search warrant, which is necessary to stop someone. Belton emphasizes that there were no legal grounds for this interception other than an opportunity to profile a minority racially.

A recent report commissioned by the city of Montreal in 2019 shows striking evidence of racial profiling by the SPVM. The authors demonstrate that Indigenous people and Black people are between four to five times more likely to be stopped by the police than white people are.

Moving forward, Belton and his client are in the process of filing a complaint to the Quebec Human Rights Commission as well as one to the police ethics board.

 

Archive graphic.

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Concordia is rife with instances of racial profiling

Photo by Steven Depolo from Creative Commons.

Campus security allegedly profiles mature Concordia student

As a 20-year-old Caucasian woman, I’ve never personally experienced racial profiling. But when it happened to one of my friends, it prompted me to do some research. Profiling on university campuses by campus security and law enforcement is a reality for minority students, and it needs to end. Students need to stop feeling unsafe in their place of learning out of fear of being profiled by campus security.

Profiling may seem like a broad and scary topic, so let’s go back to the basics and define it. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, profiling is, “the act or practice of regarding particular people as more likely to commit crimes because of their appearance, social class, race, etcetera.”

It all began a few weeks ago, on Oct. 14, when Concordia student Nigel Ramasawmy contacted me after he felt he had been the victim of profiling by Concordia’s campus security. He had been standing in the Hall building, waiting for a friend, when a campus security guard approached him and began questioning him about why he was standing there.

When Ramasawmy asked the guard why he was being questioned, the security guard claimed that another student had made complaint about Ramasawmy but wouldn’t disclose the nature of the complaint. Eventually, the security guard just walked away, never having asked Ramasawmy to see his student ID. While this may seem like a normal interaction where the guard was just doing his job, it is necessary to point out that Ramasawmy, as mature student of minority descent, felt targeted and unsafe.

This appears to be a case of profiling, but according to Fo Niemi, executive director and co-director from the Center for Research Action on Race Relations’ (CRARR), this is not the only time an older student was profiled.

CRARR is currently investigating a case involving Concordia’s security intercepting, photographing and banning a black woman from accessing the EV building. This case “also involves social profiling because the woman was treated as a homeless person, as she walked in with many bags and she is overweight, in her 40s,” said Niemi in an email. “[The case] is still before the [Quebec] Human Rights Commission” he added.

According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), profiling is considered a violation of a person’s human rights, and the OHRC has reported that profiling, specifically racial profiling, is not an effective way to stop or prevent crime. Yet, this violation is regularly committed by law enforcement and other authoritative figures.

Why should a student ever feel victimized by their own campus security? It may be security’s job to keep us safe, but profiling students and jeopardizing their personal safety is definitely not the way to go. If universities want to become the safe and accepting places they claim to be, any and all forms of profiling need to end.

In both cases of profiling at Concordia discussed, the form of profiling has been social. Sadly, race is often an underlying factor in on-campus profiling cases, like the York University sexual assault case.

The Toronto Star reported in 2012 that after multiple cases of sexual assault at York University, police on campus began to stop and question students who met only one part of the perpetrator’s description—that he was black.

In the article, Alexandra Williams, the president of the York United Black Student Alliance said, “they’re going up to young, black men who are no taller than five-foot-three or five-foot-four, and asking them to empty their pockets and show them their identification, under the pretext that they look too young to be on campus.” The perpetrator was described as being between five-foot-seven and five-foot-ten.

While this may just seem like an overzealous officers, it could be they were just stopping every black York University student because in their subconscious minds, all black people, specifically black men, are from the same social and racial group as the rapists, and therefore are all suspects.

I don’t blame the campus security guards—this mindset is a modern reality that has been formed over time. Minority groups are deemed criminals because of societal racism that continues to endure today. In a report published by the Canadian Federal Corrections System, visible minorities are overrepresented in Canada’s prison system. The report said that while Aboriginal people in Canada make up approximately three per cent of Canada’s total population, they make up 18 per cent of Canada’s prison population.

While I want to believe Concordia’s campus security is not purposely profiling older students—the profiling on all levels—whether social, racial, or other, needs to stop. A Caucasian woman like myself should have the same possibility of being stopped as any other person who attends this university.

Not only does profiling have a detrimental effect on our prison system, it interferes with students who are simply trying to learn. Campus security needs to turn towards alternative methods to ensure our security, rather than singling out minority groups and suspecting them of crimes.

While I have never felt victimized by any form of law enforcement, some people are often unjustifiably persecuted. No one has control over where they are from or what they look like, and it should not be something that they are singled out for. I can’t imagine being singled out as I walked to class simply because of my race, how I dress or my age. This is a reality in our multicultural society should cease to exist.  

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