Community groups demand to be heard on police street checks

Community organizations demanding an end to racial profiling are angry that Montreal's public security committee plans to finalize its recommendations on police street checks Friday before they've had a chance to react.

“Again we've been disregarded. Again we've been sidelined,” said Yvonne Sam, chair of the rights and freedoms committee of the Black Community Resource Centre in Côte-des-neiges.

The public security committee will hold a virtual meeting Friday at 1 p.m. to adopt recommendations on the Montreal police's new street check policy.

Last Friday, independent councillor Marvin Rotrand wrote to committee chair Alex Norris on behalf of 30 community organizations demanding that the public be given time to comment on the recommendations before they are adopted. They ask the committee to delay adoption for at least a month so citizens and groups can present written briefs.

Norris was unavailable to speak to the Montreal Gazette, said Catherine Cadotte, a spokesperson for the city administration.

Montreal police Chief Sylvain Caron unveiled the long-awaited policy in July, nine months after an independent report revealed that Montreal police are 4.6 times more likely to stop Indigenous people, 4.2 times as likely to stop Black people and twice as likely to stop Arab people as they are to stop whites.

The new policy stipulates that officers must have a solid reason for stopping citizens in public spaces. However, it does not cover cases in which police pull over drivers — the subject of multiple allegations of police stopping people for “driving while Black.”

Caron said last year that the reason for the omission was that local police do not have jurisdiction over moving violations, which are covered by the Quebec Highway Code. But critics charge the policy won't solve profiling if it doesn't cover such cases.

The public security committee held a virtual consultation on the policy in September, which Caron did not attend.

Under the policy, which went into effect last fall, officers are required to undergo training. Coaches have been made available to help them follow the new guidelines.

Even though the policy has already been implemented, Caron has said it is not too late to make changes in the wake of the public security committee's recommendations. Next month, city council will debate an opposition motion calling for Montreal police to be equipped with body cameras.