Racial profiling not addressed at public meeting
A public consultation about the police method of street checks Friday afternoon left some attendees disappointed over its structured format that left no time to discuss issues such as racial profiling.
The consultation, which was held at Carleton University and addressed issues including the definition of “street check,” rules about how they should be applied and administrative oversight, was attended by approximately 15 members of the public, along with a handful of Ottawa police and government officials.
“It’s a very active conversation,” said Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Yasir Naqvi. “I’m very happy to hear the diversity of the people who are attending from our community, so we have varied perspectives represented in this consultation.”
The format of the consultation involved discussions among small groups on three specific questions, with results of their ensuing discussion written on sticky notes and posted on a board.
Participants were also encouraged to speak to the group as a whole after the group segment was finished.
But not all the people in attendance were satisfied with the scope of the conversation.
Carl Nicholson, a member of the Police Services Board who was not acting in an official capacity, said the “structured” discussion left little wiggle room to discuss potential bias and racial profiling.
“You can be sure it’s not far from our minds,” he said. “We do want the opportunity to explore what is driving those numbers.”
The numbers he mentioned refer to a document released in July. The police service’s combined statistics from 2011 through 2014 showed that 58 per cent of people it has street checked are white, 20 per cent are black and 14 per cent are Middle Eastern. Aboriginal, Asian, East Indian, Latin American and those whose race is unknown accounted for about seven per cent. The ethnicity of about 10 per cent of people street checked wasn’t recorded.
This contrasts with the 2011 National Household Survey that stated that black people account for just under six per cent of the population.
“I can appreciate, on the surface, that looks odd,” said Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau. “But I think there’s some value in understanding what’s driving those numbers. And we’re doing a lot of research on traffic stops ... to understand exactly what’s driving those numbers.”
Ewart Walters, who published and edited an Ottawa newspaper for the black community called the Spectrum from 1984 until 2013, agreed that the format was limiting. “In just about every one of these measures to deal with these issues,” he said, “the racial or colour reasons don’t get the kind of play they should.”