Racial profiling not addressed in Ontario public consultation over street checks

Valid concerns. That is the issue:

A public consultation about the police method of street checks Friday afternoon left some attendees disappointed over its structured format that left no time to discuss issues such as racial profiling.

The consultation, which was held at Carleton University and addressed issues including the definition of “street check,” rules about how they should be applied and administrative oversight, was attended by approximately 15 members of the public, along with a handful of Ottawa police and government officials.

“It’s a very active conversation,” said Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Yasir Naqvi. “I’m very happy to hear the diversity of the people who are attending from our community, so we have varied perspectives represented in this consultation.”

The format of the consultation involved discussions among small groups on three specific questions, with results of their ensuing discussion written on sticky notes and posted on a board.

Participants were also encouraged to speak to the group as a whole after the group segment was finished.

But not all the people in attendance were satisfied with the scope of the conversation.

Carl Nicholson, a member of the Police Services Board who was not acting in an official capacity, said the “structured” discussion left little wiggle room to discuss potential bias and racial profiling.

“You can be sure it’s not far from our minds,” he said. “We do want the opportunity to explore what is driving those numbers.”

The numbers he mentioned refer to a document released in July. The police service’s combined statistics from 2011 through 2014 showed that 58 per cent of people it has street checked are white, 20 per cent are black and 14 per cent are Middle Eastern. Aboriginal, Asian, East Indian, Latin American and those whose race is unknown accounted for about seven per cent. The ethnicity of about 10 per cent of people street checked wasn’t recorded.

Racial profiling not addressed in public consultation over street checks | Ottawa Citizen.