A year after the death of Jean René Junior Olivier, this 37-year-old black man killed by a police officer when he was apparently in distress, citizens of Repentigny say it bluntly: in case of a problem – and especially if you are black — don’t call the police. Racial profiling has never been the subject of so much thought, so many legal proceedings and so many decisions, but in the police, where this gangrene is wreaking its worst discriminatory ravages, it is hard to yet to name things with courage.
The laws that make up the police forces and the mission statements that they adopt are full of principles and values targeting the maintenance of peace and order, the protection of the public, the promotion of respect, integrity and community engagement. But field experience does not always agree with the main principles. In front of the police, citizens are not all equal.
In the wake of commemorations this week marking the year that has passed since the death of her son Jean René Junior, Marie-Mireille Bence remains haunted by the call she made to the emergency services on 1er August 2021. She thought she would see help arrive at her home for her sick son, but the support operation turned tragic. “I will never forgive myself for calling the police. She blames herself today for having trusted the police. A report from To have to confirms that the climate of mistrust has increased over the past year in Repentigny. Citizens from racialized communities say they are afraid.
The mayor of Repentigny, Nicolas Dufour, still refuses to talk about racial profiling and is ace of procrastination. Does racial profiling exist within the SPVR (Service de police de la Ville de Repentigny)? asks our journalist. “I can’t say yes, I can’t say no. The policy of “neither yes nor no” allows the comfort of inaction, it is known. Fortunately, while cities and police forces play on words and trample, society takes good strides.
On July 20, the Human Rights Tribunal sentenced two SPVR police officers to pay $8,000 in damages to François Ducas, judging that the randomly arrested black teacher had been the victim of racial profiling. In December 2017, the man was on his way to meet a student at his internship site, a usual route, when the two police officers came across his vehicle, a BMW. They immediately turned around to apprehend him, even though he had not committed the slightest offence. Exasperated by this umpteenth unjustified random arrest, the man protested, convinced that the driving of a luxury vehicle by a black person had aroused the suspicion of the police officers.
In this important decision, Judge Doris Thibault agreed with him completely. “When they met Mr. Ducas, the police saw that he was black and they turned around to follow him. The Court is convinced that the police officers would not have turned around to intercept him randomly if he had been white. He was therefore treated differently. »
In Montreal, eyes are on another cause that could invalidate the right of police officers to carry out random roadside checks. The man behind the lawsuit, Joseph-Christopher Luamba, claims to have been arrested by the police four times in the space of a year and a half, between 2019 and 2020, while he was a passenger or at the wheel of a car. The young black student says he wants to “stop this scourge of racial profiling”. Although the law permits law enforcement to randomly stop vehicle occupants for random checks without any violation being committed, the data tends to support that Blacks, Indigenous peoples and other racialized communities suffer from bias-driven police overzealousness.
We’ve known all of this for ages. Courageous police chiefs helped make things happen—Marc Parent, in Montreal, in his day; Fady Dagher, in Longueuil. Initiatives are flourishing here and there: even Repentigny, severely singled out for a year, is changing the situation within its police force to erase the destructive stigma of discrimination and profiling. In her judgment rendered last week, Judge Thibault said she was convinced by her willingness to question.
Three Quebec universities have decided to add a law course dealing specifically with this social issue, sensing that the courts will soon be invited to plead this type of case more frequently. In addition to the courts, which will play a crucial role in the evolution of mentalities and practices, education also remains a lever of choice to undermine racial profiling. But in politics as well as within the institutions, it is courage that we will need the most so that actions are consistent with the main principles.