Rather than prohibit random arrests, the government of François Legault intends to set “guidelines” to frame them, and subject the police forces to close monitoring. The Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, concretized his intentions in a bill tabled on Wednesday.
If Bill 14 “amending various provisions relating to public safety and enacting the Act to help find missing persons” is adopted, it will give the Minister of Public Safety two months to produce directives “concerning police arrests , including roadside interceptions”. Police forces will then be required to publish an annual report detailing the arrests made in the last twelve months.
The objective, “is to be able to collect information on why [des] interceptions,” summed up Minister Bonnardel after tabling his bill in the Blue Room.
Although there is “no systemic racism” in the police services of Quebec, “there may be cases of profiling from certain members”, affirmed the elected representative of the Coalition avenir Quebec Wednesday. It will therefore include in its guidelines for police forces the obligation to eradicate arrests “with discriminatory motives”.
” It’s necessary […] be very clear that being black in a car is not a reason [d’interception] summed up his colleague Christopher Skeete, who is responsible for the fight against racism. “It is to say explicitly that it is not acceptable and to attach sanctions to it. »
court judgment
Last October, a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec ordered in a decision the end of random arrests. This practice, described in the judgment as a “sneaky form of racism”, is contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, he decided.
In a report signed in 2020, ministers and elected officials from the Coalition avenir Québec government – including Mr. Skeete – also wrote that “police arrests can be perceived as harassment and a form of racism”. This document, containing 25 recommendations, called for an end to “random police arrests”.
The government has since reversed course. Arrests are a “tool” for police forces, said François Bonnardel last year. This is not “an abandonment of the principle”, added Christopher Skeete on Wednesday. “We are banning random arrests on discriminatory grounds, which is basically the problem,” he said.
The bill is “far from being up to par”, lamented the League for Rights and Freedoms on Wednesday. “The arrest is an arbitrary practice that must be prohibited everywhere in Quebec, and not supervised as provided by the government,” said the organization in a press release.
Bill 14 provides for more ongoing training for police officers in the fight against racism to limit the number of discriminatory arrests. It also provides for the transformation of the Police Ethics Committee into an administrative tribunal and the establishment of a conciliation process between people who claim to be victims of discrimination and the police officers targeted by a complaint.