Lawyer calls for end to ‘carding’ of blacks, aboriginals
If you are a black or aboriginal citizen in Lethbridge, you’re far more likely to be stopped by city police.
After reviewing statistics from Lethbridge police officials, local defence lawyer Miranda Hlady is calling for an end to “carding” here and across the province.
“Black people are eight times more likely to be carded than white people,” she told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. And based on the comparative population numbers, “Indigenous people are five times more likely.”
Big-city police forces across Canada have come under fire for randomly stopping and “carding” people, a practice she calls “systematically discriminatory and racist.” Hlady described carding as a situation where “civilians are stopped on the street by police, questioned and have their information recorded despite no suspicion of any crime.”
Though 80 per cent of the city’s population is considered “white,” she added, only 40 per cent of the recorded carding incidents in Lethbridge involved caucasians.
Describing herself as “a person of colour,” Hlady said family friends as well as clients have made her realize some Lethbridge police officers were using the same stop-and-interrogate procedures as their big-city counterparts. They’re also concerned about how long the officers’ “street intelligence” reports are kept in police computers, and who else has access.
Hlady said she obtained Lethbridge carding statistics through a “freedom of information” request. It showed officers filed 1,007 carding reports in 2016, and 1,257 a year earlier.
The request was filed, she said, after a number of parents told her some of their non-caucasian children were being stopped repeatedly.
“These children were all under the age of 18 and they were all either black or brown. They weren’t sure about what they should do.”
Speaking as an aboriginal woman who’s attending university, Lethbridge resident Cherilynn Blood described an incident where the vehicle in which she was a passenger — on her way home from an event at the Sik-ooh-kotok Friendship Centre — was followed and stopped by police who questioned her at length although she was not the driver.
“I was terrified,” and didn’t know she had the right to say nothing.
Blood joined Hlady in calling for police officials, city council and the provincial government to order an end to random police stops like hers.
Lethbridge police officials, responding later Tuesday, said they reviewed their carding policies after concerns about Toronto police received national attention last year. Lethbridge is part of an Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police group working with the province’s solicitor general and justice ministry to review “street check” practices, they added.
Police forces hope to “standardize a position.”
Lethbridge police officers receive training with respect to bias-free policing, officials add. As a requirement for accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, the Lethbridge service conducts an annual review of bias-free policing practices.
Last year’s review was conducted in July, they add, and all officers received the training.
As for teenagers, “Police have a legal obligation to check on the welfare of children,” officials say.
“If an officer observed a child or group of children out on their own after dark or in any other kind of suspicious or concerning circumstances, they would likely be checked to ensure their safety and if required by law, apprehended and returned to their legal guardian.”
As well, police will interrogate “individuals who are known to be involved in criminal activity, individuals who may be able to supply information about criminal activity or persons checked during an investigation and who are believed to be involved in criminal activity.”
Speaking from Edmonton, the province’s justice and solicitor general’s minister said the Alberta government will soon be looking for a cross-section of views on the issue.
“All Albertans deserve to feel safe and respected in their communities,” said minister Kathleen Ganley.
“Under Alberta’s policing standards, police agencies are required to provide impartial policing without regard to ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, belief or social standing.”
Her department is creating a consultation plan “and will be launching community consultations in the near future,” Ganley said.
“We look forward to hearing from Albertans, community groups and police agencies.”