A sign that racial profiling practices are no longer tolerated in angry silence, the number of police ethics complaints dealing with this issue and roadside stops has almost doubled since 2019, as revealed by a survey conducted by The duty. This is an encouraging pledge of social evolution, but, alas, three times alas, a huge gap persists between virtue and practice, since only 1% of complaints related to racial profiling lead to a sanction.
Romel Dérival, a Montreal engineer of Haitian origin, is part of this starving statistic. Four years after he was stopped without cause while driving the Porsche Carrera 911 lent by a friend during his stay in Montreal, a judge concluded last July that the police had violated their code of ethics (the sanction of the two police officers will be debated on Wednesday). The 47-year-old, who now lives in the United States, told reporters from To have to being randomly arrested by the police much more often in Montreal than at his home in California. Even as the judgment was rendered, the police arrested him again recently, the height. “The sad thing is that I’m used to it,” he says.
Reports and research demonstrating the unwarranted burdening of racialized people by police forces are mounting, with some showing that Black, Arab and Indigenous people are four to five times more likely to be stopped by the police. to Montreal. In a report of which The duty obtained a copy, an independent strategic adviser mandated by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) recommends that the police force refine the methods for detecting racist prejudice when hiring because, says Frédéric Boisrond in a report produced two years ago, “it is very easy for a racist to join the ranks of the SPVM”, but “virtually impossible to dismiss a racist”.
However, these disturbing findings, which tend to demonstrate the existence of a tenacious and tough police subculture, have not yet been officially revealed. Despite encouraging signs of acknowledgment of racial profiling sent by the SPVM management, in the field, the police say they do not know any racist colleagues, nor have they seen or heard unacceptable remarks or practices. There is still a wide gap between official discourse and practice.
This is why the resounding victory of Joseph-Christopher Luamba in the Superior Court, at the end of last October, caused a real commotion in the police world, which still depends on the usefulness of random police interceptions. In his shock judgment, Judge Michel Yergeau effectively invalidated the provisions of the Criminal Code and the Highway Safety Code that allow police officers to exercise this power, a practice that the judge considered illegal because too often used in a context racial profiling.
The wishes of Joseph-Christopher Luamba, this black student arrested four times in the space of a year and a half and at the source of the Yergeau judgment, will they be granted? By leading this cause, he hoped to “stop this scourge of racial profiling”.
There is a long way from the cut to the lips. A first symbolic gesture will be made by the government of Quebec, towards which the eyes are turned at the moment: will it appeal the judgment? Groups stood up at the start of the week to implore him not to do so, but many observers remain perplexed by the untimely reaction of Prime Minister François Legault, who, the day after the judgment, expressed the opinion that he ” Let the police do their job.”
To those who, like the Association des Directeurs de Police du Québec, fear losing this power which “saves lives”, we unfortunately cannot oppose any figures, because there is no compilation of data on race which could suggest a link between these random interceptions and breaches of the codes. Justice Yergeau noted this in his powerful presentation. It is a defense that has served not only the police, but also the governments, against whom the legal action was directed. In short, in the balance of discriminatory effects on racialized people — patents! — and positive safety consequences — invisible! —, the balance seems to weigh heavily on the side of the harmful evidence of these interceptions.
Prevention and training remain key in achieving culture change, although in some organizations resistance can be strong, especially if it stems from denial of the problem. But these efforts are still too often associated with vain attempts, because they are not followed by coherent actions on the ground. This is the unhealthy effect of this damned discrepancy.