Abdellah Azzouz has been a community worker at the Saint-Michel Youth Forum for three years. Growing up in Saint-Léonard in Montreal, he always wanted to help others. Today, he tells La Converse the story of the police check he was subjected to and that he equates to racial profiling. Here is his testimonial.
Behind his nonchalant look, his long and curly hair, and his full beard, Abdellah Azzouz exudes softness and serenity. The man who attended the Saint-Michel Youth Forum when he was younger is now an outreach worker there. A way for him to “give back.”
Despite his apparent modesty, he decided to speak out to denounce what he considered to be racial profiling. It all started on Thursday, October 10 at around 22:45 p.m. while he was in his parked vehicle.
“I was in my car, engine stopped, waiting for my friend”, he testifies. At that moment, he noticed a police car pass by him before turning around and stopping near his car. “A policewoman comes down, she comes to see me and asks me what I am doing here. I told her that I was waiting for my friend who lives next door to go have a coffee,” says Abdellah Azzouz. The police officer then asked him if he was using substances, to which the young man answered in the negative.
Finally, while he said that he did not know why he was being checked, she then ordered him to identify himself. This is where things take a completely different turn.
A fine of $500 for obstruction
According to Abdellah Azzouz, the policewoman refused to tell him the reason for the check and a second police officer arrived. “I wanted to know why I had to identify myself. Have I committed an offence? Is there any reason for this check? I just wanted an explanation, and I told her that I would identify myself once I knew why I had to do it. But less than three sentences were exchanged and her colleague arrived. He told me 'Enough talking' and he opened the car to get me out”, says the community worker of Algerian origin.
Once in the police car, he claims to have indicated that he is a community worker who works in collaboration with the police services as an outreach worker with young people. “I told them that the week before I was in a meeting with the mayor of the city and that we had talked about the problems of racial profiling in the Montreal police force. When I said that, the policewoman replied: 'Too bad you didn't film anything.' She wanted to tell me that I did not have proof and she must know very well that the mayor has no authority over the police, even if the police depend on the city, which is the employer,” underlines Abdellah Azzouz.
Finally, he agreed to identify himself to avoid being taken to the police station. “The policeman pulled out a tablet with lots of photos and looked for mine. I told him that my criminal record is clean and that I have never had a problem with the police. They ended up letting me go, but with a $500 fine for obstruction of justice,” he explains, showing his ticket.
Abdellah Azzouz said he was shocked by this experience, as was his mother when she learned about it, and quickly decided to share his testimony on his Facebook page. As a community worker whose role is to create bridges between young people in Saint-Michel and the police, workingfor the prevention of youth violence, but also against racial profiling, he confides that he felt the duty to speak out.
“I know that I don't have proof, that I hadn't filmed, but a lot of organizations, police officers, and elected officials know me, invite me to anti-violence events and know that I'm serious. For me, I went through this control simply because I look a certain way and have long hair, the stereotype. It is an injustice and it is not acceptable! ”, he insists.
Racial profiling singled out
According to Abdellah Azzouz, the police team that carried out the check belonged to the “Eclipse” section, which tends to carry out racial profiling. The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) website indicates that the officers of this section have the mission of “fighting crime and violence”, and “to support, in the field, neighbourhood stations or the various investigation units in carrying out their intervention plan and their investigation strategy”.
“A lot of young people had told me about their experiences with the Eclipse police officers, and that they were tired of being checked all the time. Often, I asked them if their attitude had been appropriate, if they had done nothing... but by experiencing it myself, when I was simply waiting for a friend, I realized that these are totally unjustified controls, based only on our appearance and that is not normal,” says the community worker. He himself remembers a time, last June, when he was leaving a coffee shop with friends and was stopped by agents from the Eclipse section: “According to them, we got out of the café too quickly. It doesn't make sense! That day, a policewoman recognized me and told her teammates that I was working with the city hall, so they did not continue the check.”
Abdellah Azzouz says that in testifying today, he is speaking in support of neighbourhood youth who are subject to racial profiling and who “we do not believe”. He denounces the modus operandi of the Eclipse section, and assures that relationships are much more peaceful with neighbourhood police officers, who have a better knowledge of the territory and its inhabitants.
Recognizing that some people feel that he should have simply identified himself, he considers that he did not refuse to do so but that it is “legitimate” to know why he is being checked. He assures that the racial profiling of young people in Montreal neighbourhoods also poses a financial challenge. “Young people told me that they are being checked and given a ticket for allegedly crossing the road at a red light and the police take the opportunity to search their phones. These are false pretexts and they end up having problems with their parents who think they have done something to get checked, and who end up paying a fine when they are already in financial difficulties. It should not be surprising that young people are afraid of police officers”, says the community worker.
“They are sick of wasting 15-20 minutes every time they get checked for no reason. They are tired of police officers only coming to talk to them about negative things when what they need is to be valued,” he said. According to him, the SPVM must recognize these excesses and combat them firmly and concretely. In particular, he says he is in favour of police body cameras in interventions: “It is a solution that protects both the work of the police and the citizens, it seems to me that it would be very beneficial and easy to implement.”
Abdellah Azzouz says he still does not know why the police decided to check him that evening is determined to get an answer. “They came across the wrong person, I want to take this case as far as possible, because it is an injustice to have me checked without any explanation and to be taunted by telling me 'a shame that you didn't film anything,'” says Abdellah Azzouz. He hopes that his fine will be cancelled by the police and he will challenge it if it is not the case.
Few scientific studies
While the issue of racial profiling is increasingly in the media, there is relatively little statistical data on this issue. In 2019, a first qualitative survey conducted with a large sample of racialized young people in Montreal revealed that this is indeed a reality. Entitled Police arrests in light of the racialized identities of the people arrested, it was conducted by three Montreal academics and their final report was handed over to the SPVM.
“During the period of four years from 2014 to 2017, Black people were 4.2 times more likely to be stopped by the SPVM than white people and Indigenous people were 4.6 times more likely to be stopped than white people. As for Arab people, they were twice as likely to be arrested than white people,” the researchers note in their conclusions. Enlightening figures.
The report states that “the arrests of Arab and Black people are disproportionate, both taking into account their demographic weight in the population of Montreal and considering their “contribution” relating to violations of municipal regulations (180% and 137% respectively for Arab and Black people) and criminal offenses (overquestioning of 93% and 66% respectively)”.
On September 3, following a collective action launched by Ligue des Noirs and Alexandre Lamontagne, a Montrealer victim of profiling, the Superior Court concluded that SPVM police officers were guilty of racial discrimination. Judge Dominique Poulin concluded that the City of Montreal was responsible as an employer. “The City cannot hide behind its police officers or make them bear the blame exclusively,” she said.
The judge also awards racialized people who were victims of arrests without cause, between 2017 and 2019, from $2,500 to $5,000 in damages. This highly anticipated decision has been welcomed by anti-racist activists who consider it a “step forward”, although it does not solve the root problem.
Contacted by La Converse about the case of Abdellah Azzouz, the SPVM refused to comment. “The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) does not comment on specific police interventions, in order to prevent any influence on a possible judicial, ethical or disciplinary process. With rare exceptions, we also do not confirm specific arrests, that a person — natural or legal — has filed or is the subject of a complaint or the conduct of an investigation,” the communication department replied to us.
For his part, Abdellah Azzouz made an appointment at the Saint-Michel legal clinic in order to find out his rights and the remedies available to him. He says he is determined to continue his work to “prevent young people from turning to crime”, while defending “those who suffer in silence from racial profiling in North African and Black communities.”
Optimistic, he says he wants to regain a relationship of trust between the police and young people. To do this, Abdellah Azzouz plans to enter politics in order to change things.