Laval police action plan to end racial discrimination falls short, activists say

The Laval police service (SPL) says it's trying to improve relations with visible minorities and eliminate discrimination among its ranks by revamping the service's community interaction, training and recruitment policies.

The SPVLcommissioned a survey in 2020 asking more than2,800 people for their opinions on policing in Quebec's third largest city. About 27 per cent of respondents identifiedas a visible minority, and their perceptions of police were different than those of white respondents.

"What we understand now ... isthat [visible minorities] have a less positive perception than white people," said Laval police ChiefPierre Brochet.

That echoes the perception of police in other municipalities, where Black people and people of colour have brought forward complaints about unfair or racist treatment and haveraised concerns about the lack of representation of their communities in police services.

End to carding, police chief vows

The SPVL has responded with aseven-point action planaimed at ensuring thefair and equal treatment of all citizens.

Among other commitments, Laval police say they will offer staff training to intervene withdifferent communities, develop outreach strategies in these communities and increase diversity in the police service.

The practice ofcarding the randomstopping of people to request their personal information when there are no reasonable grounds to do so will also be eliminated.

WATCH| Resident explains how Laval police have profiled him:

Laval resident says he's been profiled dozens of times and expects little to change

3 years ago

Duration 2:31

Pradel Content says unless police are held to account for their actions, he's not optimistic the SPVL's policing strategies will improve.

"Now police officers, their framework is that they need a reason [...] to do carding. That's a big change," saidBrochet.

But Laval resident Pradel Content, who is no stranger to unjustified police stops, says he doesn't think eliminating cardingwill change anything at all.

"It's very condescending the way that [officers] act and the way that they do thingsit's not about carding me," he said.

Content, a Black man who walks with a cane and suffers from chronic back pain, saidhe's been repeatedly hassled by police.

In 2014, he waswrongly detained by policefor a robbery, and in 2021, Quebec's police ethics committee upheld six of his 12 complaints against a Laval police officer, including racial profiling, discrimination and filing a false police report, for an incident at a gas station in 2017.

Content estimates he's been subject to around 30 baseless interceptions by Laval officers since he moved to the cityin 2014.

He saidunless police are held to accountfor their actions, he's not optimistic the SPVL'spolicing strategies will improve.

"The only thing I want in my life is to be able to step outside like I used to," he said. "I won't be able to do that until[police] have cameras in their cars."

Action plan is 'superficial,' says lawyer and activist

In Repentigny, just northeast of Montreal, police unveiled a five-year action planlast year to build better relations between local police and the city's Black community, after a report found that Black people were about threetimes more likely than whites to be stopped by police officers there.

Marie-Livia Beaug, a Montreal criminal defence lawyer and activist, said her clients paint a similar picture of being singled out by police, no matter what municipality they come from.

"I've accompanied people that were victims of racial profiling that were in Laval, Repentigny, Montreal and even Brossard, and stories are mostly the same: they're targeted because of the colour of their skin," she said.

Beaug representedSamuel Bunche in his case against the City of Laval in2020. Theyoung Black man was pulled out of a car by his hair by Laval police officers and roughed up, after being stopped for what police described as erratic driving.

Beaug saidshe's helped several other people who say they were racially profiled and traumatized by Laval police.

She calls the SPVLaction plan "pretty superficial" and the study "a waste of money," saying police didn't have to spend money to find out many visible minorities don't trust them.

"To gain back the trust of the communities, it's really through accountability. And this is something that has been asked and is still being asked, for multiple years right now," said Beaug.

She saidin order to make sincere changes, the SPVLmust analyze altercations betweenpolice officers and people of colourthat have occurred in recent years, and takethese people seriously when they lodgecomplaints.

"Take responsibility for the lives that were traumatized, the families that were traumatized," Beaug said.