Racialized Montrealers say denounce SPVM racial profiling

A year and a half after their publication and delivery to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), two reports on police stops and racial profiling in Montreal were finally presented before the Public Security Commission at City Hall on Wednesday, December 11. This public presentation was an opportunity for Montrealers to express their concerns as well as their hope for some answers. At the heart of this important discussion, however, the SPVM was conspicuous by its absence, leaving questions unanswered and citizens angry. Report.

As the light began to dim and the rain became freezing, around 30 citizens crowded inside Montreal's City Hall on Wednesday, December 11 at 3 p.m. Outside the door of the Coat of Arms room, six police officers stand guard. Inside, the members of the Commission of public safety face the public and researchers, to whom they give the floor to present the two reports relating to racial profiling.

During this public meeting, the two groups of researchers presented eloquent results highlighting the extent of the phenomenon and the “lack of will” of the SPVM to really tackle it. “Random police checks is an undoubtedly discriminatory practice and one that is not progressing as it gets better,” says one of the researchers.

The first report, commissioned by the SPVM and the City of Montreal, was produced by four academics: Victor Armony, professor of sociology at the University of Quebec in Montreal; Alicia Boatswain-Kyte, assistant professor specializing in anti-black racism at McGill University; Mariam Hassaoui, professor of sociology at TÉLUQ University; and Massimiliano Mulone, associate professor at the School of Criminology at the University of Montreal.

They analyzed more than 270,000 police stops without cause carried out from 2014 to 2021 in Montreal as well as interviews with 92 police officers. At the end of the 296 pages of their report, we become aware of the extent of racial profiling of police officers during random stops in public spaces.

The second report, presented by another independent research team, focused specifically on traffic stops. This study, produced at the request of the SPVM and the City, was conducted by the Research Collective on Road Interceptions and Racial Profiling, led by Marie-Ève Sylvestre. The findings highlighted an even more pronounced pattern of discrimination during SPVM traffic stops.

This public presentation, long requested by community organizations since the reports' publication in 2023, gave Montrealers a chance to voice their concerns. However, the SPVM's absence was widely criticized by both researchers and citizens.

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Citizens denounce the absence of a representative of the SPVM 

After more than two hours of detailed presentation of the research results, the public question period saw tensions escalate in the Arms Room.

“I absolutely wanted to be there to tell the SPVM how much harm they are doing to us, and to ask why this continues after so many years,” said Nicole. Sitting on one of the room's wooden benches, the 50-year-old said that one of her sons “was harassed by the police” when he was 15.

“I live in Saint-Léonard, we are from Haiti; and the first time my son was fined by the police for crossing a red light, my first reaction was to defend the police. For me, respect is very important, and it is something that is central to my education. If a teacher or someone with authority says something, I will support it,” said the mother. “But as the months went by, he was being checked more and more often, with remarks or racist undertones, and then I understood that he was not the problem. We ended up driving him and picking him up from school every day because he was so stressed about making the trip alone.”

The absence of the SPVM crystallized tensions. To everyone's surprise, no police representative was present during this presentation. Moreover, this absence was largely highlighted by the research teams as well as by the citizens present and by the executive committee of the Public Security Commission.

“I don't understand why the police director isn't here tonight,” said Nicole. “It's such a lack of respect! I am happy to have seen the researchers' presentation—it was amazing!—but I don't see the point in asking questions to someone who's not there.” Bitter, she quietly left the room as soon as the research teams finished presenting the reports.

“I think it's, once again, a lack of consideration and proof that they don't respect the racialized people of this city,” said Paul, a Montreal citizen.

A few minutes later, the citizens present, including many activists, approached the microphone one after the other to ask their questions. In most cases, Daphney Colin, the President of the Commission, gave the same answer: “This is addressed to the SPVM; we will forward your question to them.”

“It makes no sense! Why are we being brought in here if we can't even talk to them? I think it's once again a lack of consideration and proof that they don't respect racialized people in this city!” exclaimed Paul, a Montrealer who was outraged by this one-way exchange.

Under a wide-brimmed hat, Anastasia Marcelin, director of the Quebec Black League, new generation, did not give up: “I became an activist because my brother was harassed in Montreal North; I had no choice. (...) Our communities participate in the development of Montreal; it must stop! The experts said it, everyone said it, we're all here saying the same thing!” said the young woman before turning to the glass door of the room. “The police officers outside, stop your racial profiling!” she shouted at them, making one of them smile.

Loud applause showed just how frustrated the audience was. Once again, they were given the same answer: “Your question, like all the others addressed to the SPVM, will be sent to the SPVM.”

“Madam President, I have one last question,” said Mariam Hassaoui, one of the researchers and editor of the first report presented. “Is it usual for there to be so many police officers at the entrance to this kind of public meeting?” Whispers were heard in the room. After a silence, the president acknowledged that “it is not really usual for there to be so many, but it seems that the SPVM had information according to which there was a risk of demonstration.” A sigh went through the audience.

The argument did not seem to convince the audience. “And are we going to be told that they were forced to spend their time sitting opposite, looking at their phones and laughing while barely looking at us while we are talking about them?” asked Redouane, a resident of Montréal-Nord. “Couldn't they be a little bit further away and have a professional attitude, if they were really there to keep us safe?”

The frustration remained palpable, and the demands for accountability continued throughout the meeting.

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What care for victims?

On the benches reserved for the public, faces are closed. Throughout the testimonies, one glimpses the wounds caused by racial profiling. The feeling of not having a place in Quebec society, the exhaustion associated with the ongoing fight, chronic anxiety—the consequences are numerous. Especially since the voices of victims are often questioned, as noted by Azzouz Abdellah, a community worker from Saint-Michel, who shared his experience with racial profiling with La Converse last October.

Called to the microphone, a citizen asked for care for the victims. With an immaculately cut beard and a khaki shirt buttoned all the way up, Hamza Madani, who worked at the Saint-Michel Legal Clinic, had himself experienced the bitter reality of racial profiling. “I was being controlled so much for no reason that I started making videos on YouTube and social networks to denounce these practices. Today, in my work, I am particularly interested in police violence, and I co-host a podcast on this as well because it is time for it to stop,” the young man told them.

He addressed City representatives: “What do we do with young people who have been subjected to this type of profiling? Who lost their girlfriends, wives, jobs, incomes—all of these consequences? Not everyone has a voice! There are young people who have been silent (...), who have veered into crime or depression. What do you plan to do for them?” he asked.

The issue of victim care was brought to light on September 3, when the Superior Court of Quebec ordered the City of Montreal to compensate people who had been subjected to racial profiling. However, this decision only applied to police stops carried out from August 2017 to January 2019.

The Multiple Effects of Racial Profiling

“The policeman has a gun. He can do anything with it. A Black person's word wasn't worth much in the province where you live.” —Aiden

Researchers from the Collective for Research on Road Interceptions and Racial Profiling encountered numerous victims who had suffered both physical and psychological consequences from these police practices. “I wanted to drop out of school, stop working; I was having insomnia, I was so angry, I did not sleep well [...] I could spend the night tossing and turning in my bed. Afterwards, I did not understand how a human could think that he was superior to another like that!” Aymeric told them, who had suffered from severe headaches and insomnia after several arrests.

Others lived in fear and had recurring nightmares. “The police officer has a gun. He can do anything with it. The word of a Black person is not worth much in the province where we live,” said Aiden. While the uniform should have reassured them, victims often said they had learned to fear it. “Some people are in constant hypervigilance when they are walking on the street, or when they are driving a car. They will stop for three seconds at each stop sign, drive more slowly... as if they had to be more perfect than others to avoid being noticed,” underlined researcher Marie-Eve Sylvestre.

The effects of racial profiling could also be felt in the financial or professional sphere. Beyond the fines to be paid—which could represent significant amounts—repeated delays, absenteeism, or even reputational damage could lead to job loss. “I was a full-time student, and I worked part-time with a minimum number of hours, so it took my full pay to cover the fine,” said Inès, a student who had received a fine she said was unjustified.

Finally, the perception of public institutions was also affected, according to researchers. The feeling of not being able to obtain justice, of being excluded from Quebec society, or the perception that police officers were authorized to disregard the law were impressions often reported by victims of racial profiling.

“It was hard for me to understand that there was justice for white people and justice for Black people. Before, I did not see myself in a frame; in my head, I was not Black, I was not White, I was someone, a self-respecting human. But then, when I was on the street, it was as if I had a label on my forehead: ‘Oh, you are a Black man!’ And I felt it all the time! It was never my home! Besides, my children who were born here, it was as if they were never fully Quebecers! I felt this stigma!” testified Raymond.

Researchers Disillusioned with the “Generalized Denial” of the SPVM

Beyond presenting the data from their studies, the two research teams showed a united and determined front during the public meeting. All expressed their incomprehension at the decision of the director of the SPVM, Fady Dagher, to refuse to implement their only recommendation: an immediate moratorium on random police stops.

For Massimiliano Mulone, who was part of the first research team, there should have been no doubt: “We disagreed with him when he said that this would be a symbolic measure. It is the opposite of a symbolic measure since it is very concrete! We did not understand where this argument came from...” explained the academic.

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“We were not against the idea of the cultural change* that he was talking about, but he himself said that it would take several years. So I said that, in the meantime, let's put an end to this practice, whose discriminatory nature had been scientifically proven, and maybe in a few years, we could put it back in place. When you subject a population to discrimination, it is not security that you are producing, but insecurity,” Mr. Mulone concluded, triggering a wave of applause.

According to Alicia Boatswain-Kyte, who took part in the preparation of the first report, the denial shown by the SPVM led to an “immobility” of the institution. “Since the majority of them did not see themselves as racist and did not see this behavior among their colleagues, these accusations were perceived as unfair. (...) Practices were not being questioned or efforts were being made to change them,” she continued.

The research team also hoped to consult recent SPVM data. “The latest data provided by the SPVM on arrests dated from 2021. We would like to know if the SPVM will make public the data for 2022, 2023, and 2024,” asked Victor Armony.

The seven main points of these reports

• Indigenous, black and Arab people are 2.6 to 6 times more likely to be arrested for no reason than the white population.

In 2021, an Indigenous person was 6 times more likely to be stopped by police than a white person. We are talking here about random arrests, which are not justified by any offence, reasonable suspicion or an ongoing investigation. This figure has nearly tripled since 2014.

A black person was 3.47 times more likely to suffer the same fate, and an Arab person was 2.62 times more likely. Finally, Latinos are 1.26 times more likely to be arrested than white people.

• Young black and Arab men are the most affected by racial profiling.

Young people aged 15 to 34 represent about half of the people questioned each year by the SPVM. “Among the male population aged 15 to 34, more than a third of those arrested in Montreal are black, and one person out of six is Arab,” note the researchers. Being young therefore increases the risk, which is already high for a racialized person, of being racialized.

Moreover, while the proportion of young black men who are victims of racial profiling has been relatively stable since 2014, that of young Arab men has increased sharply. In 2021, they represented almost a quarter of all arrests made among young people. An inordinate proportion when you consider that people of all ages who identify as Arabs make up only 8% of the total Montreal population.

“The vast majority of random arrests are initiated by the police themselves, rather than by reports from citizens,” says sociologist Mariam Hassaoui, thus rejecting the argument that these biases are linked to 911 calls.

A phenomenon that police explain by the fact that racialized young people would be more likely to commit offenses. But again, the numbers don't agree with the theory.

• There is no correlation between ethnicity and crime.

“For police officers, it's criminal and non-racial profiling,” reports the researcher. If the lack of correlation between ethnicity and crime needed to be scientifically proven in order to try to put an end to this racist prejudice, well, that's what this report does.

Sociologists have in fact used the Index of Over-Interpellation for Violations of Municipal Regulations (ISRI-RM) to demonstrate this. The aim is to compare the number of arrests targeting each of the racialized groups and the number of offenses committed by these same groups in Montreal. In a society without racial profiling, the former should be more or less in proportion to the latter. However, that is not the case.

Depending on whether they are violations of municipal regulations or the Criminal Code, the rate of over-arresting Black or Arab people varies between 20% and 112%. This proves that arrests are “a stable and routine practice” that is “very sensitive to prejudices” and leads to “racial profiling”, say the researchers.

The research team insists that this is an “irrefutable” observation, which can therefore no longer be the subject of debate.

• Racial profiling is an exacerbated phenomenon on the road.

Behind the wheel, racialized people are more likely to be racially profiled during traffic stops.

According to researchers, police officers motivate these arrests for various reasons: overly tinted windows, snowy patches, a “bandit” car, an evasive look, wearing a hood, having an Afro haircut or driving a car that is not named after him. On this subject, researcher Marie-Ève Sylvestre ironises: “I want to say that I am driving a car that is in my husband's name and that I have never been stopped for this reason.”

The report notes that checks can quickly escalate, with “racial insults” for example, when the person concerned asks questions about the reason for the check or “has the misfortune to want to enforce their rights”. This can go as far as physical assault by police officers, the report notes.

By consulting the testimonies collected, we learn that some people are intercepted from one to 10 times a month. A company manager even says he had the name of his company removed from his car so as not to get bad publicity by being seen, stopped by the police, on the side of the road.

• The denial is collective at the SPVM.

The research team conducted interviews with 92 police officers in Montreal. An overwhelming majority of them believe that racial profiling does not exist.

“We note that there is a widespread denial among law enforcement personnel of the problem of racial discrimination within their organization. Police officers emphasize their commitment to serve and protect all citizens, but also on the fact that stopping is an essential practice. These practices are not being questioned or efforts are being made to change them,” says Mariam Hassaoui.

“Random questioning is based largely on suspicion; therefore, it is a practice characterized by its ambiguity (...) which follows a logic of prediction, according to which, if the person attracts our attention, it is because they deserve it. It is a practice that is particularly sensitive to prejudices and cognitive biases,” adds the researcher.

• The only recommendation is to establish a moratorium on arrests.

“We have proposed a moratorium on any police arrest that is not based on the finding of an offence, a reasonable suspicion or an ongoing procedure, poses Victor Armony. Contrary to what we said, this is our only recommendation in this second report.” A recommendation that the director of the SPVM, Fady Dagher, already brushed aside when the report was published in June 2023.

According to him, a moratorium would be only a “symbolic measure” that would not make it possible to “solve the problem at the source”. However, in 2019, the first report, commissioned by the SPVM from the same researchers, was already alarming in this regard.

Fady Dagher then announced the establishment of a new policy on arrests. But reading the second report, it is clear that it did not have a real effect on racial profiling, leaving racialized Montrealers to suffer police discrimination as before.

Interviewed by La Converse, the SPVM remains evasive. “As an organization, we recognize the need to improve our practices. We remain committed to the procedures begun since the first report we commissioned from researchers and which was published in 2019,” assures the police institution through its press service.

“During 2025, the SPVM will be in a position to present the updated version of its policy on police stops, a policy that it initially deployed in 2021.”

No details on how this “updated version” could be more effective than the previous one.

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*Fady Dagher said in 2023 that a “cultural shift” within the police institution would be enough to solve the problem of racial profiling.