OPP’s DNA dragnet wasn’t racial profiling, police watchdog says

Advocates filed complaint after samples taken from 99 migrant workers during sexual assault investigation

Ontario needs a new policy on DNA canvassing, a police watchdog said Tuesday, describing police as “overly broad” in 2013 when they collected DNA samples from 99 migrant workers following a sexual assault.

But Gerry McNeilly, who heads the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, said the OPP hunt for a culprit’s DNA in Bayham, Ont., though it “certainly had an impact on migrant workers’ sense of vulnerability,” fell short of racial profiling.

That angered activists, who called out “Shame! Shame!” as McNeilly made his remarks. “This is racism, Gerry. You’re perpetuating racism,” a man shouted before storming out of the room.

Members of the advocacy group Justice 4 Migrant Workers (J4MW) filed the initial complaint that launched McNeilly’s investigation.

"This report fails the migrant workers. . . . This institution has failed them."

CHRIS RAMSAROOP

ADVOCATE FOR MIGRANT WORKERS

They were among the crowd as McNeilly presented findings from his long-awaited report, titled Casting the Net: A Review of Ontario Provincial Police Practices for DNA Canvasses.

Chris Ramsaroop, an organizer with J4MW, stood during McNeilly’s speech to address him directly.

“This report fails the migrant workers. It fails them. This institution has failed them. And really, what we’re doing is we’re giving police forces across Ontario and across Canada the carte blanche to harass, humiliate (and) to intimidate racialized communities,” he said.

Shouts of “end to racist policing” reverberated in the room after Ramsaroop spoke.

Renu Mandhane, chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, said her agency is also disappointed in McNeilly’s review results.

“We think there are sufficient findings of fact to make a finding of racial discrimination,” she said, adding the commission is in the early stages of considering the migrant workers’ case at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.

J4MW activists said they were concerned about former police, through the OIPRD, policing the actions of current officers.

McNeilly’s spokeswoman, Rosemary Parker, said in an email that the OIPRD employs a mix of former police officers, former military personnel and civilian investigators. McNeilly, as required under the Police Services Act, was never a police officer.

Before joining the OIPRD in 2008, he was the executive director of Legal Aid Manitoba for nine years.

At the media conference, McNeilly said Elgin County OPP failed to ensure that the migrant workers had truly consented to giving DNA samples. He said police also failed to keep confidential, from their employer, the migrants’ decisions on whether to submit a DNA sample.

Of the 100 workers asked to submit samples, at least one refused.

That man was not invited to return to work the following year, J4MW

“We think there are sufficient findings of fact to make a finding of racial discrimination.”

RENU MANDHANE ONTARIO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

members said.

The woman who reported being assaulted at knifepoint, strangled and sexually assaulted in 2013 described her attacker as a black migrant worker, between 5 feet10 inches and 6 feet tall, in his mid- to late-20s. Many of the 99 people who gave DNA samples did not match that description.

J4MW interviewed 44 of the 100 people asked for samples and learned that roughly half were shorter and about half were much older.

Police later arrested a suspect in connection with the incident, a migrant worker from Trinidad.

Tzanza Miranda Leal, a member of the J4MW group, said most of the affected migrant workers continue to work in southern Ontario. They had waited anxiously to hear the results of the OIPRD review, she said.

“Unfortunately we were not given the report in advance as we were promised, and we thought that was a bad sign,” Leal said. “Today really just confirmed our fear that police will never be found racist, that racist practices will never be condemned publicly by the state, and that they will continue to happen in places where nobody, seemingly, is looking.”

Colleen McCormick, a spokeswoman for the OPP, said in an email she was “pleased to see that the director was satisfied that the OPP investigation was not motivated by racial prejudice as alleged in the complaint.”

The OPP will consider the OIPRD’s recommendations for DNA canvassing and “regularly looks at ways to improve our policies and procedures in this regard,” McCormick said.

This is the second systemic review the OIPRD has undertaken since its inception in 2009. The first review examined policing of the G20 Summit in 2010.