Demonstrators gathered in front of a police station in the borough of Montreal-Nord Monday evening, denouncing alleged co-ordinated racist behaviour by more than a dozen police officers.
CBC News reports that among the protesters was Rayan Rabah, who said he’s frustrated by the lack of transparency.
“When a policeman does something, they never release the name. They never show their face. It’s really sad,” he said. \gesturing to the crowd of demonstrators, he said, “I am glad there’s a lot of people today to just talk about this and just protest.”
Last Friday, Montreal police Chief Fady Dagher held an unprecedented late-night news conference to announce the launch of the investigation of 16 officers, built on internal reports made by other officers at Station 39.
According to a Radio-Canada source, the officers allegedly collected pieces of locs, sometimes called dreadlocks, that had been cut from people during police interventions.
Tickets were also allegedly issued to citizens solely based on their ethnic background, Radio Canada reports.
The Service de police de la Ville de Montreal (SPVM) has already recommended criminal charges against two of the 16 police officers under investigation at the station, and Dagher says he’s expecting more allegations to surface.
As calls for an independent investigation continue to grow Monday, a large police presence gathered ahead of the demonstration.
Frantz Andre, a community organizer, was at the demonstration waving a Haitian flag. He said the Haitian community, which has strong roots in Montreal-Nord, faces significant discrimination.
“I had to give my car away in 2019 because I have been stopped so many times,” said Andre.
After decades in Quebec, he said he has never felt so unwelcome.
“This is why we have actions like this,” Andre said, pointing to the demonstration and vowing to do his part to push for change in memory of his mother, who taught him to be an activist. “I am going to fight so hard.”
Samuel Bunche, who grew up in Montreal-Nord, said racism within policing is going to continue if authorities don’t take action.
Nearly six years ago, Bunche launched a lawsuit against the City of Laval, alleging he was “humiliated” and “traumatized” during an encounter with the police.
“I got dragged from my car by my locs and I got beat by the police,” he said. Bunche said the city eventually cut him a cheque in connection with the incident.
Earlier Monday, Quebec’s Domestic Security Minister Ian Lafreniere announced he is appointing an independent observer to follow the investigation by Montreal police into the group of officers accused of racial profiling and discrimination.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez-Ferrada said Sunday she will work with the Quebec government to accelerate the implementation of body-worn cameras.
She has called for calm and pledged that Montrealers would learn the truth about the allegations as “any form of racial profiling, discrimination or violence is unacceptable.”
