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A coalition of groups have sent a letter to Premier Christine Fréchette, reiterating the call for the province to hold a public inquiry into racism and racial profiling within Montreal police.
And they want to meet the premier.
This demand is in connection with the allegations of racism towards Black and Arab people that led to the police force investigating 16 of its own officers at a police station in the city’s Montréal-Nord borough.
Two of those officers have been suspended and two cases have been submitted to Quebec’s director of criminal and penal prosecutions, who will determine if criminal charges will be laid.
Although Montreal police did not elaborate on the nature of the allegations, some officers allegedly collected pieces of locs cut from people’s hair during police interventions, according to a Radio-Canada source.
Tickets were also allegedly issued to citizens solely on the basis of their ethnic background, Radio-Canada reports.
The groups’ joint letter, written in French, states that “recent events are not isolated incidents.”
“A public inquiry is the only mechanism that can address the broken trust between the population and police forces,” the letter reads.
The letter was signed by the following groups:
- Hoodstock.
- The Clinique juridique de Saint-Michel.
- The Ligue des droits et libertés.
- The Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
This story will be updated. More to come.
