CBC News reports that the City of Montreal’s legal services department is blocking any police racial profiling cases by stalling hearings before the Human Rights Tribunal.
Gaétan Cousineau, the president of Quebec’s Human Rights Commission states that lawyers representing the police force are using procedural and jurisdictional arguments in order to delay hearings. Particularly, they will seek to prevent any interrogation of police officers if their case is also before the police ethics commission.
Cousineau believes that the delays are detrimental to the entire complaint process and undermine confidence among the minority communities that it is meant to protect. Cousineau suggests that such tactics may be a way in which the city refuses to acknowledge the existence of racial profiling.
According to Cousineau, “Refusing to look at things, and refusing to see it when it is there is the worst thing that can happen to society. Once you acknowledge that it is there, then you can start repairing it”.
Click the following links to learn more about:
1) Quebec’s Human Rights Commission
2) Its research and publications relating to racial profiling.
Montreal is not the only one to following racial-profiling, rather Winnipeg is known to be one of the worst cities, when it comes to following racial-profiling. Time after time it has been proven that disadvantaged groups can not expect a fair justice over here in Winnipeg. There must be something need to be addressed to overcome this ever growing problem for vulnerable people.