12-year-old boys racially profiled, commission says
Quebec force, three officers in spotlight
MONTREAL • A Quebec police force and three of its officers are being asked to pay $42,000 in moral and punitive damages for racially profiling two 12-year-olds at a birthday party five years ago.
The Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission is also recommending the Repentigny Police Force train its members on the risks of profiling people of colour, and review its procedures related to the treatment of children under the age of 14.
“We increasingly have cases from people living in the small towns outside Montreal, from places like Terrebonne, Repentigny, St-Jérôme, because people are moving to the suburbs,” said Fo Niemi of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), who helped the families bring their cases before the commission. “So the decision comes as a confirmation that racial profiling does exist in Repentigny, and it carries a hefty price tag.” The city of Repentigny disputes the results of the findings and will fight the case in court, if necessary. On June 8, 2013, Shewany Tshilombo and Kélian Ruault, were playing hide-andseek outside of the Marina of Repentigny restaurant at 8:30 p.m. Then three police cars arrived. The boys were spread-eagled, searched and handcuffed. The boys said officers put each of them into separate cars, interrogated them, and told them repeatedly they should confess to the crime of breaking the window of a BMW, because witnesses had seen them do it. Confess and face a minor charge, or face going to court in St-Jérôme, police advised. The boys refused. Shewany’s mother said she was summoned by police who advised her repeatedly the children should confess to avoid serious charges.
“My son was crying uncontrollably,” Sophie Bellemare said. “I had never seen him like that.”
Later, a police officer called to say the BMW owner reported his window had actually been broken days earlier. The boys would have a minor mark on their files, connected to the incident, the officer told her. “Not only were the boys victimized, but now they were going to have a mark for something they hadn’t done,” she said.
She went to the Repentigny Police Force but said she got the runaround from administrators. She went to the Repentigny police ethics board, but attempts at conciliation were unsuccessful. An RCMP officer at the birthday party suggested she go to CRARR. In late November, the commission ruled the Repentigny Police Force and three police officers — Marie-Andrée Gignac, Mathieu LaraméeLemay and Maxime Dessureault — pay each youth $12,000 in moral damages, and $9,000 in punitive damages.
“I feel better, but there are still a lot of scars,” said Kélian, who is headed to CEGEP next semester. “I no longer have the trust in police I once did.”
The city has until Friday to comply with the commission’s decision, failing which the cases will be brought before the Human Rights Tribunal, which can force payment. Louis-André Garceau, head of legal affairs for the city of Repentigny, said the city declared immediately it was not in agreement with the conclusion and would contest it. City spokesperson Marlène Girard said officers already receive training in racial profiling, and the city recently created an outreach program to foster better relations with its minority groups, particularly among the predominant Haitian community. Niemi of CRARR noted that the decision came one month after Stanley Jossirain, a 22-year-old black man, announced he is filing seven complaints with the Quebec Ethics Board against 15 officers with the Repentigny force over what he called a pattern of years of racial profiling.
One of the officers is cited in the case involving the two 12-year-olds.
The parents said they were heartened by the commission’s decision, but disappointed their five-year battle will likely drag on. “I would like to see justice done,” said Kélian’s father, Fabien Ruault.
“We have all suffered because of this. But we can’t let it go, for (the children) for (the parents), and for all those who have lived this but don’t dare to speak of it. It’s time that this type of thing stops.”