Checks hit Indigenous women hardest

Vancouver police criticized for targeting racialized people

VANCOUVER— Indigenous and civil rights activists seeking an investigation of the Vancouver Police Department’s use of random street checks want to amend their complaint based on new data showing Indigenous women are checked more often than other groups.

In June, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs asked the province’s police complaint commissioner to investigate a significant racial disparity in the use of street checks.

During the checks, also called carding, police stop a person, obtain their identification and record personal information, even though no particular offence has occurred.

The association says in a news release that recently obtained data shows Indigenous women accounted for 21 per cent of all checks of women in 2016, despite only making up 2 per cent of Vancouver’s female population.

The data was supplied by the Vancouver Police Department following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request and was received after the original complaint was sent to the complaint commissioner.

A further amendment asks the commissioner to examine police stops in which personal information is elicited but the stop is not recorded as a street check, so it doesn’t show up in police department data.

The original complaint was based on data from a Freedom of Information request that shows 15 per cent of street checks conducted between 2008 and 2017 were of Indige- nous people, yet they make up just 2 per cent of the population.

The news release says during that period, Indigenous men formed 1 per cent of the city’s population, yet accounted for about 12 per cent of total street checks. Also during that time, 3 per cent of checks involved Black men, although they form just half a per cent of Vancou- ver’s population.

When the complaint was filed in June, Chief Bob Chamberlin of the B.C. Union of Indian Chiefs said the disproportionate rate of checks on Indigenous people was “staggering,” and he is angered by the newest data disclosed by police.

“We will not accept this example of institutionalized racism and we demand an immediate independent investigation,” he says in the release.

“How can we speak about true reconciliation when Indigenous peoples, and particularly women, are being targeted by the police on a daily basis?”

An FOI request shows 15 per cent of street checks between 2008 and 2017 were of Indigenous people