A Black Montrealer says he was handcuffed and fined more than $1,100 after being stopped by provincial police for not wearing a seatbelt – even though he was. Quebec anti-racism organization Red Coalition is calling it a clear case of racial profiling. Jean-Hamilton Phillippe says he was driving home from Trudeau airport March 29 around 2:20 a.m. when he was stopped on the Champlain Bridge by a Sûreté du Québec cruiser. “I was a little bit shocked because first of all, I was actually going to pick up some business clients and I didn’t know what was going on at that time.”  Read More

An Ottawa woman plans to file a human rights complaint against the Royal Bank of Canada after a routine trip to her branch to pick-up her credit card resulted in what she calls a dehumanizing and racist experience to prove her identity to police. Barratou Barry, an RBC bank client of 15 years, says on Aug. 18, she went to her regular branch location on Bank Street to make a cash deposit in her account and to pick up her new credit card.  Read More

A typically breezy, routine trip to an Ottawa bank last month devolved into a drawn-out and dehumanizing incident of racial discrimination, one of the bank's longtime Black customers says. On Aug. 18, Barratou Barry went to the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) branch on Bank Street south of the Greenboro park-and-ride to deposit some money and pick up a new credit card.  Read More

Turrel Daye, 27 ans, se rendait au travail le 14 septembre dernier lorsqu'il aurait été victime de profilage racial de la part de policiers de Longueuil. Turrel Daye a dénoncé lors d’une conférence de presse jeudi matin la force excessive qui aurait été employée lors de son arrestation survenue lors de son déplacement au travail, très tôt, le 14 septembre dernier.  Read More

The Red Coalition has bolstered its toolbox of community resources and added voices to its team fighting the scourge of racial profiling. The anti-racism group’s new Lawyers Against Racial Profiling (L.A.R.P) program will serve as a go-to hub for members well-versed in the complicated landscape of racial profiling. Attorneys are often victims’ first line of defense, and L.A.R.P will recruit practicing attorneys in Quebec, offering membership across Canada. “The battle is real, the victims are real, and it takes key people in the right place,” says RC executive director Joel DeBellefeuille.  Read More

The hardest thing about fighting systemic racism, is that there is a system. A system that protects and covers up violations of our civil rights. It is one thing for well-meaning and often effective citizens to come together in alliances to redress wrongs. But it is so much better when those rare occasions occur when inside men decide to permanently join those alliances and the buttons of the system begin to be pushed to help the victims and not the victimizers.  Read More