The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) has had additional scientific data and analyzes on racial profiling in its ranks for several months, learned The Press.
Their existence was recently mentioned during a large meeting between several dozen police executives and the new chief Fady Dagher.
The SPVM is currently defending itself in court against a 170 million class action launched by the Ligue des Noirs du Québec. The three-week trial, which saw Valérie Plante and Fady Dagher parade, ends this Friday.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, and the new director of the Montreal Police Department, Fady Dagher, at the time of his swearing in on January 19. Both were called to testify in the class action.
The legal debates focus in particular on the ability of prosecution lawyers to correctly identify victims of profiling. Failing this, they decided to include in their action all racialized people arrested by the police without being arrested between 2017 and 2019, i.e. around 17,000 people.
Not forwarded to Black League
However, the lawyers of the League of Blacks did not know that the police had a “draft version” of the report which they had commissioned from a group of academics. These are the same experts who had signed a first report on police arrests in 2019, a document on which the collective action is based.
“A preliminary version of the report was submitted to the SPVM at the end of 2022. However, work is still underway to continue analyzing the data and completing the research,” confirmed communications officer Caroline Labelle. , from the SPVM. According to three sources, however, a first version of the document was received by the police several months ago, in mid-2022. “A final and complete version is expected in the coming months. The SPVM has undertaken to make the final report public. »
PHOTO PIERRE SAINT-ARNAUD, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Lawyer Mike Diomande and his client Alexandre Lamontagne, Wednesday, at the Montreal courthouse, on the sidelines of the class action brought by the Quebec Black League on racial profiling at the SPVM
Me Mike Diomande, the lawyer for the League of Blacks of Quebec, wanted to remain cautious while the trial is underway.
“It’s a shame we don’t have it in our hands, because it would solve a lot of problems,” he commented in a telephone interview.
Unfortunately, the data is in the hands of the SPVM. We don’t have the data. That’s the reality. It would be very easy to clarify the situation for everyone by putting the data on the table.
Me Mike Diomande, lawyer for the League of Blacks of Quebec
Researchers would not comment on the situation. “I mentioned to the court that we had transmitted preliminary results of the analyzes in the case of the second mandate”, was limited to saying Victor Armony, reached by telephone.
Sand in the gear
The preliminary report submitted to the SPVM contains a more detailed classification of the statistics concerning the thousands of arrests recorded by the SPVM in recent years, but also an analysis of interviews conducted by the researchers with the police about profiling.
According to our information, relations between the police and researchers are strained at the moment due to differences in the interpretation of the answers given by the police. The conclusions the scientists draw would be too harsh for the liking of the police department.
“The exchanges between our organization and the researchers continue in a constant and productive way,” assured communications officer Caroline Labelle, of the SPVM.
The first report signed by Victor Armony and his colleagues concluded that there was a “very apparent systemic bias” in the arrests made by the SPVM.
“The arrests of Arab and black people are disproportionate, both taking into account their demographic weight in the population of Montreal and considering their ‘contribution’ relating to violations of municipal by-laws and criminal offences”, concluded the researchers. According to their calculations, a black person is four times more likely to be arrested than a white person, while an individual of Arab origin is twice as likely to be arrested.
However, they refused to use the term “racial profiling” due to a lack of data on the reasons for the arrests.
“We don’t have racist police. We have police officers who are citizens and who have biases, as all citizens can have,” reacted the then chief, Sylvain Caron, before ordering a second report from the researchers.
The arrival of Fady Dagher at the SPVM last month brought the issue of racial profiling back to the fore. The new leader said he wanted to serve “all the people, all the people”. He acknowledged that he himself had engaged in racial profiling during his time as a patrol officer and that these behaviors were correctable for the vast majority of police officers.