By Gerald V. Paul

Déjà vu Montreal?

Former Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino dismissed that there was racial profiling by his officers when he was confronted with the information .

Now, as the emotions are still raw over the killing Fredy Villanueva by police which sparked a riot in 2008, Montreal Police Service has issued a report detailing extensive evidence of racial profiling.

The report suggests that the number of young black men stopped and questioned by police in Montreal’s sensitive neighbourhoods is “much too high” and even amounts to “fishing expeditions.”

“A large proportion of these checks,” study author Michel Charest concludes, “ can be judged as arbitrary or malicious.”

A concerned Charest on the implications of the findings stressed that another riot is possible if the population feels targeted – “profiled”- by police, and can be sparked by an identity check “that turns bad.” He questioned whether the proportion of crimes committed by blacks warrants the mass control.

And what may come as a revelation, Montreal Police Service Commander Eric La Penna said that racial profiling exists in certain cases but denied any systematic problems. He said that every officer now receives awareness training on the subject.

But the facts are: between 2001 and 2007, the report shows, the frequency of police identification checks on individuals increased by 126 per cent in the Montreal North borough and 91 per cent in St. Michel.

This alarming increased touched primarily blacks to such an extent that by 2006 and 2007 between 30 and 40 per cent of young black men in these areas faced police identity checks, compared to 5 to 6 per cent of whites.

University of Montreal sociologist Christopher McAll, who published a study in March using 2001 data showing black teens in Montreal were twice as likely to be arrested as whites, said that it is significant that the force is studying the issue.