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| NEWS > 16 March 2006 |
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Venezuela to Survey Police Law
Caracas, Aug 2 (Prensa Latina) Venezuela will install near 600 ballot boxes on August 6 to lead an open survey on the National Police Law, considered a key instrument in law enforcement.
Interior and Justice Minister Jesse Chacon termed comprehensive the goal of a national commission made up of the vice president, the Interior and Justice Ministries, regional and local authorities.
Current Police ranks are plagued with loopholes ranging from poor coordination between regional bodies to corruption, so the new law is part of the official efforts to overco... Read more
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Hour.ca - Canada
16 March 2006
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The race against profiling
A recent ruling by the Quebec Police Ethics Committee found that Quebec City cops used racial profiling when they pulled over Marle-Anne Laquerre, a black mother driving her sons to a basketball championship dinner, ostensibly for a busted windshield wiper. When she objected, one cop warned her not to play "the race card," the other told her to "see a psychologist."
The Committee's decision is good news says Fo Niemi, executive director of CRARR, the Montreal-based Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations, because it contributes to Quebec jurisprudence. The police ethics committee will shortly begin hearings into complaints by several black and other minority Montrealers of police racial profiling, some dating back to 2003.
Racial profiling is when police focus on race or ethnicity, rather than behaviour, and can be a shameful rite of passage for non-whites in this country.
"DWB," or "driving while black," is slang that has been used in instances when Toronto cops have pulled over black drivers. Similarly, "TWA" means "travelling while Arab."
"The terms originated in the community," explains University of Windsor law professor David Tanovitch, "as a descriptor of what offence was being committed by those stopped."
Professor Tanovitch is the author of The Colour of Justice: Policing Race in Canada (Irwin Law), the first comprehensive examination of the practice of racial profiling nationwide. His research showed that even black officers have used racial profiling in determining
who to pull over or who to question, illustrating how deeply the policy is entrenched.
Vancouver New Democrat MP Libby Davies introduced a private members bill in 2004 to ban racial profiling within federal jurisdictions. The bill made it to first reading in the Commons and was endorsed by both the Bloc Québécois and the then-opposition Tories. Davies will reintroduce the bill when Parliament resumes in April, but Professor Tanovitch isn't hopeful it will pass under a Harper-led government.
"I'll adopt a wait and see approach," he said, "but I heard nothing during the campaign or since that suggests it is a priority. I am not optimistic."
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