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A broad network of community advocates, human rights and legal experts, academics, concerned and affected individuals and the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) is calling on the Province to ensure that its Draft Regulation on police street checks – or “carding” – achieves the Minister’s stated objective of ending arbitrary and discriminatory police street checks.
Members of the network met with met with Yasir Naqvi, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services on Monday November 30, 2015 and presented a Joint Statement. The Joint Statement points to concerns with the Regulation’s limited application and scope and changes that are needed if Minister Naqvi is to meet his goal to “standardize police street checks across the province, and establish rules to ensure that these encounters are without bias, consistent, and carried out in a manner that promotes public confidence.”
“Racial profiling of African Canadians and Indigenous peoples has eroded public trust and confidence in our police. The Draft Regulation does not go far enough to prevent racial profiling in street checks,” says Renu Mandhane, Chief Commissioner of the OHRC.
Read the Joint Statement, list of signatories and Press Release here: http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/criminology/tank/documents/2015-11-24-Joint%20Position%20re%20Regulation%20on%20Carding%20FINAL.pdf
The OHRC has done extensive work on racial profiling. Racial discrimination in policing has been one of the OHRC’s strategic priorities since 2009. The OHRC conducted a province-wide inquiry into the effects of racial profiling, produced several publications with detailed information about racial profiling, and worked with several police services and boards in Ontario. It has also been involved in many key cases addressing racial discrimination and racial profiling in Ontario.
For more information about the OHRC’s efforts to tackle racial profiling, including carding, see www.ohrc.on.ca/en/search/site/racial%20profiling%2C%20carding