Public security and racial profiling
MONTRÉAL, May 11, 2011 - The Commission desdroits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse is committed to continuingits work fighting racial profiling. It undertakesto review its judicial strategy and to improve how it handles the systemicdimension of racial profiling complaints.
“The results of our consultation on racial profilingand its consequences confirm that the Commission made the right decision whenit launched this initiative and chose to make racial profiling anorganizational priority,” today said the president of the Commission, GaétanCousineau, upon the release of its report: Racial profiling and systemic discrimination ofracialized youth.
“This processhas allowed us to shed light on manifestations of racial profiling in Québec andgave us the opportunity to put forward promising solutions to tackle racialprofiling and systemic discrimination in key sectors for youth, such as publicsecurity, education and the youth protection system,” he added.
Mr. Cousineau acknowledged that anumber a racialized community members expressed reservations when theCommission launched its consultation in September 2009 because they remembered previousconsultations or public hearings held in Québec on racism and discriminationthat did not bring significant and lasting changes.
To ensurethat the Commission’s report does not meet a similar fate, the Commission has pledgedto follow-up with the government, government departments, and other institutionalstakeholders, such as police, cities and school boards to ensure that itsrecommendations are implemented.
The Commissionhas also undertaken to review its own work in order to improve its complainthandling process as it applies to racial profiling in order to take better accountof the systemic dimension of such files. It will also improve the training ofits own staff.
Moreover,the Commission is committed to continue working with the many communityorganizations that participated in the consultation process, and will remain attentive totheir needs.
The Commission has also undertaken to:
- reduce the time involved in handling complaintsof racial profiling at every stage to the extent possible;
- prioritize the option of referring cases ofracial profiling to the Human Rights Tribunal on their merits in its decision-making process, even in the absenceof collaboration from thepolice officers involved during the investigation stage and
- pursue its efforts to have municipalities,including the City of Montréaland the SPVM (Service de police de la Ville de Montréal) instructtheir police officers to collaborate in the Commission’s investigations ofracial profiling, inparticular by providing testimony when requested.
To find outmore about the Commission’s more than 90 recommendations and the reportentitled: Racial profiling and systemic discrimination of racialized youth,please visit www.cdpdj.qc.ca.
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Contact : Patricia Poirier
(514)873-5146 or 1 800 361-6477 ext. 358
patricia.poirier@cdpdj.qc.ca
