Groups call for review of ‘carding’ policies
Elaine Durocher, who is Metis and has lived on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for 11 years, says it’s time for an investigation into the disproportionate rate that Indigenous people are “carded” by Vancouver police.
The last time Durocher was stopped and asked for identification from police she was walking along Hastings Street with her young granddaughter when she saw officers “harassing” someone and asked what was going on.
“My granddaughter’s little hand squinched into my hand, so I knew she was frightened,” Durocher said.
She is part of a group of civil rights, Indigenous and black leaders calling for B.C.’s police-complaints commissioner to investigate a significant racial disparity in the Vancouver Police Department’s use of carding. During the checks, police stop a person, check their ID and record personal information.
“Poverty is not a crime, homelessness is not a crime, being a person of colour is not a crime,” Durocher said. “It’s my right as a human being to be left alone to walk these streets. It’s my right to not have police tapping me on the shoulder because of the colour of my skin.”
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association filed a complaint Thursday based on a release of figures under a Freedom of Information request that shows 15 per cent of all carding between 2008 and 2017 was of Indigenous people, yet they make up just two per cent of the population.
The data also say four per cent of those carded were black, despite the population in Vancouver making up less than one per cent.
“It is difficult for us to imagine any conclusion other than that street checks are being conducted in a discriminatory manner here in the city of Vancouver. We are asking for an immediate independent investigation to determine what is going on and how this can be fixed,” said Josh Paterson, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
Vancouver’s chief constable, Adam Palmer, defended the use of street checks.
A street check occurs when an officer encounters someone believed to be involved in criminal activity or a suspicious circumstance and it is not based on ethnicity, he said in a statement. When officers see potential criminal activity or a threat to public safety, they are required under the Police Act to address it.
“The VPD does not control where crime falls along racial and gender lines. It is unrealistic to expect population and crime rates to be aligned,” he said.
He pointed to crime rates along gender lines as an example, saying that even though there’s about a 50-50 gender split between men and women in the population, about 80 per cent of crimes are committed by men.
He noted that in 2016 the majority of street checks, 57 per cent, involved white people, despite white people making up just 46 per cent of Vancouver’s population.
“There is a strong association between street checks and criminal charges. The numbers show that the percentage of street checks by ethnicity is comparable to percentages of ethnicity for charges and recommended charges,” he said.
The statement said the department will review the complaint and provide a full response with additional analysis in the coming weeks.
Chief Bob Chamberlin, vicepresident of the B.C. Union of Indian Chiefs, said the disproportionate rate that Indigenous people are checked is “staggering.”
“This is not targeting any individual Vancouver police officers, but calling on the organization itself to develop necessary tools so the guidance can be from the highest perspective, rather than the interaction point upon the street. The time for justice is now, the time for systemic change at every level of the justice system for people of (colour) is here and now for Canada,” Chamberlin said.
Some police departments and governments are changing their policies on street checks.
Ontario banned police checks last year with a new regulation that prohibits police from arbitrarily collecting identifying information based on a person’s race or presence in a high-crime area.
In April, Nova Scotia’s opposition New Democrats introduced a bill that would impose an immediate moratorium on police street checks. Last week, the Saskatchewan Police Commission said it is bringing in a policy that says officers should not randomly stop individuals and it reminded people that they are under no obligation to talk to police if they are stopped.