The City of Montreal’s commission on racial and social profiling has issued 31 recommendations to help fix the pressing issue.
In total, 30 different groups presented briefs about the city's serious problem with profiling.
“We have been denouncing social profiling, homeless receiving tickets, simply because they were homeless. The Human Rights Commission said it was social profiling in 2008. We are ten years later and now the city recognizes there is a situation of social and racial profiling too,” said the director of homeless aid resource group RAPSIM, Pierre Gaudreau.
During the public consultations, the committee heard about problems with racial and social profiling across many city agencies and departments, whether it was about hiring, housing or the way vulnerable communities are treated by Montreal police.
One recommendation is for police to collect data about the perceived and presumed racial and social makeup of people they're stopping and to make those results public.
Another recommendation is to mandate the city to increase diversity in their ranks and sensitize employees about discrimination.
Montreal police say they're on board with the objectives but will need to study them to see how they can be implemented.
Anie Samson, who heads the city's public security commission, said these recommendations go beyond partisan politics.
“Every member of the commission we agree on every recommendation,” she said. “We work hard because we want the consensus of everybody and we did it. So for us, we don't want to make politics about that. We don't want to make the campaign about that. The only thing we know is we have to do something and the next administration is going to have to follow the recommendation.”
