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| NEWS > 03 October 2007 |
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The Suburban - Montreal,Quebec
03 October 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Quebec police ethics chief mee
Black community activists in Montreal’s Côte des Neiges district intend to use the province’s own police code against what they perceive to be a recurring series of police harassment incidents going on in their district.
“This has been going on for too long,” said Black Coalition president Dan Philip. “We’re not going to take any more of this abuse.”
Last Thursday evening, in a small Caribbean restaurant located deep in the heart of the Côte des Neiges district, local community activists gathered to meet and hear Me. Claude Simard, the head of Quebec’s Police Ethics Committee. While some were originally cool to Simard’s presence, the unilingual lawyer’s calm and forthright presentation won them over, especially when they realized the province’s Police Ethics Committee was not so much a part of their problems with the SPVM (Service de la Police de la Ville de Montréal) as much as it could become a solution. Once Simard and his assistant, Me. Réjean Gauthier, described how their committee worked to deal with civilian complaints about police harassment, the crowd began to consider their own options.
“Everything begins by a written complaint,” said Simard. “We must have something in hand if we are to open an investigation about any kind of police abuse.”
The meeting began when over two dozen people crowded into community leader Keeton Clark’s tiny restaurant on the corner of Victoria and Vézina to voice their complaints about the district’s local police. Some were loud, some were emotional, all were angry.
“I never thought owning a BMW would cause me so much trouble,” said Tamara Ruglass. “Why must every policeman in the city feel compelled to pull me over every time they see me in my car? Is it because I’m a black woman driving a BMW? Is it me? Is it the car? Are they jealous?”
Another businessman, a barber, recalled how a client tied his dog to a post outside his shop before coming in for a shave and a haircut.
“I was nearly finished when the police came in to ask about the dog,” said the barber. “Two minutes later, when he left my shop, the cops were giving him a $100 ticket and telling him to keep his dog at home. That was an expensive shave.”
Others, mostly young men, told Simard how the beggars and the bums in the downtown core were lucky because any young black man walking along the streets of Côte des Neiges risked getting a loitering ticket if he wasn’t moving fast enough. “..and don’t even think about protesting the ticket,” said one of them. “That’s when they throw you against the car, put the cuffs on you and take you to the station for ‘resisting arrest.’”
There were numerous complaints about various officers working out of PDQ (Poste De Quartier) Station #25, by now well known in the community. When Simard heard about the antics of one particular officer (who likes to call himself “Rambo”) the lawyer shook his head in dismay and began to take notes as a flood of complaints poured in from the floor.
While much was said about police harassment, abuse and intimidation, Simard also heard about the Immigrant Workers’ Center and their plan to form a citizen’s group that would begin to monitor police activity within the community.
“People equipped with disposable cameras, tape recorders and camcorders are going to monitor the metro stations, the streets and the parks,” said one rights activist. “We’re going to have people know their rights and we’re going to be there whenever there’s any trouble with the police.”
After questions were posed about the Ethics Committee and its process, Simard defended his committee’s work as being fair, equitable and especially free from any kind of bias.
“We are an independent organization,” said the commissioner. ”We have no links with any police organization in the province.”
While conciliation with various police authorities was always a priority, the committee could also resort to a tribunal if there was no possibility of conciliation. Sentences against serving police officers found guilty of misconduct could range anywhere from a written reprimand to suspension without pay or in the worst of cases, being thrown off the force as occurs in most cases where criminal activity is involved. While some argued the committee’s plodding bureaucracy compromised the gravity of the citizens’ assorted grievances, both Simard and Gauthier defended the bureaucracy as the guarantee that every complaint would be treated in a fair and equitable manner.
“There’s a single code of police ethics for every working policeman (and woman) in this province,” he said. “We’re the ones who see to it the code is respected.”
At the end of the meeting, local activists applauded and thanked Simard for his visit and his efforts to spread the committee’s message. As they left the meeting, many were determined to remind the SPVM, especially those working out of PDQ station #25, about the province’s code, and especially about every policeman’s duty to uphold it.
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