City turned a ‘blind eye’ to racism

OCPM report recommends action plan, police bias screening, hiring targets

Montreal has turned a blind eye to systemic racism and discrimination in police and the city administration, the municipal consultation bureau says in a report that recommends sweeping correctives.

“As far as it’s concerned, the city of Montreal does not recognize the ‘systemic’ nature of the two phenomena of racism and discrimination,” the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) says in the 252-page report, released Monday.

It calls for 38 measures to combat racial profiling, boost the hiring and promotion of minorities, facilitate complaints against police, give anti-racism training to all civil servants and police, eliminate racial bias in arts and culture and make city politics more representative of the city’s demographic reality.

By October, it recommends, the city should appoint a Commissioner to Counter Racism and Discrimination, reporting to the city manager and responsible for creating and implementing an anti-racism action plan within one year.

Racial and social profiling by Montreal police — the subject of one-third of the concerns expressed during the consultations — persists despite years of complaints, the report says.

The “municipal administration is well aware” that its police subject citizens to profiling, it says.

“In spite of this, the Commission does not see measures commensurate with the urgency to act,” it says.

In fact, the recognition of racial and social profiling by Montreal has actually regressed, OCPM president Dominique Ollivier said in an interview Sunday.

Last October, Montreal Police Chief Sylvain Caron said he was “very surprised” by a report showing Black, Indigenous and Arab people in Montreal are significantly more likely to be stopped by police than whites.

Ollivier said Caron’s reaction marked a step backward, since the city’s executive committee had acknowledged racial profiling by police in 2018 and the previous police chief had acknowledged it in 2016.

“As long as we don’t recognize at the start that the problem exists, the culture of Montreal police on street checks will not change, since in the commission’s opinion, you cannot fight what you do not recognize and are unable to name,” Ollivier said.

The racial profiling report in October showed Indigenous people are 4.6 times more likely to be stopped by police, Blacks are 4.2 times as likely and Arabs twice as likely.

Racial and social profiling “will unfortunately continue to be a reality until such time as the organizational culture is called into question and incited to change,” the OCPM report warned.

Held from Aug. 29, 2018 to Dec. 4, 2019, the consultations attracted more than 7,000 participants, including 1,000 who took part in person.

Balarama Holness, founder of Montreal in Action, which raised a 22,000-signature petition in 2018 to force the city to hold the hearings, hailed the OCPM report as “a blueprint of how democracy can work.”

“These recommendations are accurate, succinct and powerful,” he said.

“We expect the city of Montreal to elaborate an action plan to ensure that these recommendations translate into concrete action,” he said.

The worldwide wave of protest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has brought the issues of racial profiling and systemic racism to the fore, Holness noted.

“Three or four months ago, I don’t think we would have had the same readiness to listen as there is now,” Ollivier said.

“I sincerely hope it will pave the way for lasting change and mark a new era in intercultural and interracial relations.”

Ollivier said the fact that the consultation resulted from a grassroots movement “gives me hope” it will succeed where previous efforts have stalled.

“This is a consultation that resulted from young people putting up their hand and saying: ‘We are living in an unacceptable situation and we want society to have a conversation on this issue,’” she said.

The report proposes that the hiring of a new police chief should be conditional on the candidate’s recognition and understanding of racial and social profiling and his or her ability to transform the police culture.

New police recruits should be screened for racial prejudice, and police should provide annual updates on the prevention of racial and social profiling, it adds.

Consultation participants’ most frequent criticism of the city was that it attributed racism to a few bad apples rather than acknowledging its systemic nature, said the report, submitted to Mayor Valérie Plante and executive committee chairman Benoît Dorais on June 3.

Montreal’s approach to minority relations focuses on integrating immigrants rather than combating racism, it noted. In fact, the city had no documentation on its anti-racism efforts when the consultation started and took seven months to produce a document on the topic, the report said.

The city avoids the words systemic racism and discrimination, opting instead for “managing diversity,” “living together” (vivre ensemble) and “intercultural relations,” the report noted.

“Due, notably, to this lack of precision, the municipal administration is turning a blind eye to those who were born here, racialized groups and Indigenous persons, who are affected by systemic racism and discrimination,” it said.

One “cannot fight against something that one does not recognize,” it said.

Civil servants in Montreal’s 19 boroughs repeatedly told the commission that their job was not to combat racism and discrimination but to offer municipal services, the report said.

Premier François Legault has repeatedly refused to acknowledge systemic racism, saying the term implies putting all Quebecers on trial.

“I think Mr. Legault is making the same mistake that many citizens make, which is to confuse intentional racism with systemic racism,” Ollivier said.

“What we are talking about is procedures and ways of living that mean everyone is not treated equally or has equal access to employment, housing, government services and public sector jobs, and the numbers show it,” she said.

Visible minorities accounted for 34 per cent of Montreal’s population in 2016. Immigrants accounted for 34 per cent of the population, while people with at least one parent born outside of Canada accounted for 21 per cent.

The report called for the new Commissioner to Counter Racism and Discrimination to submit an annual report on anti-racism actions starting in early 2021. The city should appoint a member of the executive committee responsible for anti-racism, it said.

Montreal’s Charter of Rights and Responsibilities should be amended to recognize systemic racism and discrimination, it added.

The report questioned the role of Montreal’s Comptroller General in investigating ethics violations and expressed concern about the lack of transparency of his work. It expressed deep concern over “the lack of clarity regarding the handling of complaints of racism and discrimination within the City of Montreal and within paramunicipal organizations.”

The recommendations also include:

■ Improving municipal services to Indigenous people;

■ Setting hiring targets for under-represented groups in the civil service;

■ Promoting racialized and Indigenous persons to upper management positions in the civil service and annually reporting the results;

■ Explicitly mentioning racial harassment, discrimination and violence in Montreal’s employee code of conduct and those of para-municipal organizations;

■ Compiling and releasing data on police checks;

■ Adding two civilian members with expertise in racial and social profiling to Montreal’s public security committee;

■ Providing clear and comprehensible information and assistance to people who lay complaints against police;

■ Training all police officers on racial and social profiling and anti-racism;

■ Improving funding for racialized and Indigenous artists;

■ Addressing inequalities in multiracial boroughs like food deserts, poor transit options, access to green space and maintenance of parks and infrastructure;

■ Improving access to social housing for vulnerable clienteles and supporting social housing projects for Indigenous people;

Three or four months ago, I don’t think we would have had the same readiness to listen as there is now.