'Time to act' on racial profiling in Quebec, commission finds

MONTREAL — A deluge of racial-profiling stories — including accounts of harassment, abusive treatment and unjustified arrests — poured into Quebec's Human Rights Commission last fall after researchers consulted local community groups on the contentious issue.

And those tales, recounted in a 37-page document, will now provide a framework for upcoming consultations on racial profiling in the province.

"It's time to act," commission chairman Gaetan Cousineau said at a news conference Wednesday. "Racial profiling has an impact not only on the life of the person who is profiled, but on the family, on the friends and on the community."

Cousineau vowed to do everything in his power to stamp out abuse of authority against visible minorities.

But based on the commission's preliminary findings, ending discriminatory treatment of minority members by police officers, transit workers, security guards and other authority figures will be no easy task.

The research into racial profiling — defined as any unjustified action by an authority figure towards members of a certain race, ethnic group or religion — turned up the following examples:

- Police pull over a black community worker, order him out of his car, slam him against the hood, handcuff and arrest him. After he is released, he goes to a police station to lodge a complaint. An officer refuses to give him a complaint form and tells him to use the Internet.

- Police officers come across a group of teens playing street hockey in Montreal's Outremont neighbourhood. They question a 15-year-old black youth but not his white friends. They then ask him his parents' names, remarking: "That's not a Haitian name." They also ask the teen what he wants to do when he grows up. When he responds that he wants to become a lawyer, they ask him what he has against police.

- A bus driver drives past a stop in front of a high school to avoid picking up four or five black youths waiting at the stop. When a passenger complains, the driver orders all the passengers off the bus.

- A 14-year-old black student gets separated from his friends in the crowd at a metro transit station. They board the train without him and he runs after the car to wave to them. Two security guards detain and question him, accusing him of lying about his age "as all black kids do." They give him a ticket. A month later, one of the guards who arrested him, who is now working with a different partner, tickets him for spitting. The guards say: "We got you again and will get you again."

- A social worker is parking his car. His passenger, a black colleague, gets out to direct him. Spotting the black man, a police officer who is passing by puts on his flashers, pulls up and demands the driver's identification. When the social worker asks why, the officer claims his turn signal wasn't working. The social worker gets out to check and sees that all of his lights are functioning properly. "I almost wished my flasher wasn't working so that I could say: 'It's my fault,' " he says.

Cousineau said the trauma caused by such incidents can be long lasting, and many victims lose self confidence, have feelings of not belonging to society, lose trust in institutions, rebel and turn to anti-social behaviour.

One respondent dropped out of post-secondary school as a result of such feelings. Another, a black mother, said: "There is no faith in the police ethics process . . . I am often afraid for my children."

Racial profiling in the province became a hot issue in August 2008 when police shot and killed Fredy Villanueva,18, in a north-end Montreal suburb. The multicultural neighbourhood erupted in riots after the shooting, and a coroner's inquest continues to investigate the case.

The commission's four-person research team consulted 100 community groups and heard from 50 community leaders, experts and other individuals from Sept. 15-Nov. 30, 2009.

Quebec citizens have lodged about 100 complaints of racial profiling with the commission since 2005 — with rulings rendered in only four of the cases so far.

More than half remain under investigation.

Of the remainder: 16 were rejected, 11 were withdrawn, six are still before the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal and five were settled out of court.

Fo Niemi, executive director of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations in Montreal, hailed the commission's recent efforts.

"What's important is that there is going to be a concerted effort across the province of Quebec," he said, adding that without such action, social tensions will continue to mount.

"If this anger is not addressed and channelled properly, it will explode."