MONTREAL -- A convoy of vehicles streamed its way to Quebec Premier Francois Legault's riding office in L'Assomption Sunday to deliver a list of demands to end racial profiling, and arbitrary police stops for those "driving while Black."
The second "Driving While Black, Proud and Free" action against stereotyping and racial profiling was organized by the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).
The first Driving While Black convoy was July 5 and drew around 200 cars driven by Black drivers from in and around Montreal.
Sunday's protest took place two days before the Montreal Public Security Commission's virtual public consultation on the Montreal police's street check policy, and a week before Quebec issues its guidelines for police street checks.
Drivers departed Montreal just after noon and headed Highway 40 to Repentigny's City Hall to join up with more drivers before heading to the premier's riding office in L'Assomption.
The list of demands were as follows:
- Adopt laws and regulations against racial profiling, which clearly define and prohibit this practice in all police forces in Quebec.
- Include in the description of the responsibilities of each police officer, including the chief of police, the duty to denounce all practices of racial profiling in police operations and practices.
- Institutionalize training against discrimination, racism and racial profiling in police training at CEGEPs and at the National Police School of Quebec (ENPQ).
- Ensure racial and ethnic diversity in:
- the appointment of administrative judges to the Police Ethics Committee, the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec and the Information Access Commission;
- the appointment of a Police Ethics Commissioner and the investigators at the Independent Investigations Office.
- the appointment of ENPQ board of director members, and force these people to take training on racism and racial profiling.
- Rigorously assess the implementation of the law on equal access to employment within the Sûreté du Québec and all municipal police services and hold the directors of these services accountable for the results on an annual basis.
- Require the creation and maintenance of a database based on the racial origins of pedestrians and drivers stopped by police, and disseminate independent analyses of this data in annual police reports.
- Prohibit and reject the anti-incivility policy, which was adopted without consultation by certain municipal administrations and by the Ministry of Public Security.
- Provide police officers with portable cameras.
- Revise the Guide to Police Practices to eliminate any directive that has the effect of justifying discrimination and racial profiling in police interventions and practices.
- Create a position of representative of "citizen from racialized communities" within the sectoral committee from the police community on racial profiling.
