Montreal police claim progress with new policy

A new Montreal police street check policy aimed at curbing arbitrary and discriminatory stops was described by the police chief as “an important change to the culture,” but critics said it will do little to reduce profiling.

The policy unveiled Wednesday is aimed at ensuring officers stop people based only on observable facts and not on discriminatory motives, such as a person’s race, gender or religion.

At a press conference at police headquarters, police Chief Sylvain Caron said the policy is the first of its kind in Quebec and a way for officers to build better relations with the communities they serve.

“We are not going to stop street checks,” Caron told reporters, referring to the practice that involves police stopping a person and recording their information regardless of whether an offence has been committed. “But we are very conscious that people’s rights are important.”

Montreal’s police service pledged to introduce a street check policy following a 2019 report by independent researchers indicating people from certain groups were much more likely than others to be stopped by police.

Caron acknowledged the existence of systemic discrimination in the police force, and said the discrepancy was likely due to unconscious biases among officers. The policy released Wednesday says police stops must be based “on observable facts and without discriminatory motives.” It directs officers to approach people “without regard to their real or perceived ethnocultural identity, religion, gender, identity, sexual orientation or socio-economic status.”

The policy was quickly denounced by a prominent civil rights group and the head of the municipal opposition, who said it would have little effect in curbing discriminatory stops.

Lionel Perez, the head of the Ensemble Montréal party, accused the police of working to “maintain the status quo and give false hope to the racialized population.” He noted that, in addition to failing to include drivers and to force police to inform citizens of their rights, the new policy doesn’t come with any sanctions for officers who fail to apply it.