Toronto - A new report by the OHRC confirms that racial profiling is a daily reality that damages communities and undermines trust in public institutions. In Under suspicion: Research and consultation report on racial profiling in Ontario, the OHRC combines social science research with lived experiences gained through consultation with over 1,600 individuals and organizations.
From: Paying the price: The human cost of racial profiling
While one of the most common initial responses to racial profiling is a denial that it occurs, there are some who do not deny its existence but rather argue that it does and should occur because it is a useful and appropriate tool to focus limited resources on those who are most likely to be engaged in inappropriate behaviour.
May 2013 - If you want to tell your employees, clients and community that your organization respects human rights, there’s an easy way to get started. Just print out and display a Code card.
Toronto - "Racial profiling has no place in our society. We have to stop debating the issue and start acting on it," was the key message delivered today by Chief Commissioner Keith Norton at the release of the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s report on the effects of racial profiling. Entitled, Paying the Price: The Human Cost of Racial Profiling, the Report is based on over 400 personal accounts of experiences with profiling that individuals shared with the Commission during the course of its Racial Profiling Inquiry held earlier this year. The Report looks at the human cost of racial profiling on individuals who have experienced it, their families and their communities and the detrimental impacts of this practice on society as a whole.
Racial profiling is an insidious and particularly damaging type of racial discrimination that relates to notions of safety and security. Racial profiling violates people’s rights under the Ontario Human Rights Code (Code). People from many different communities experience racial profiling. However, it is often directed at First Nations, Métis, Inuit and other Indigenous peoples, Muslims, Arabs, West Asians and Black people, and is often influenced by the negative stereotypes that people in these communities face.
From: Paying the price: The human cost of racial profiling
While many of the existing definitions of racial profiling, primarily originating in the United States, focus on law enforcement, the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s Terms of Reference define racial profiling more broadly to include any action undertaken for reasons of safety, security or public protection that relies on stereotypes about race, colour, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, or place of origin rather than on reasonable suspicion, to single out an individual for greater scrutiny or different treatment.
Today, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) released its new Policy on eliminating racial profiling in law enforcement at the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) CEOs Day. This policy, the first of its kind in Canada, offers practical guidance to help law enforcement identify and end racial profiling. The OACP is committed to the principles outlined in the policy, and more than 20 community and advocacy groups have added their support or endorsement.
December 2003 - The Commission’s report on racial profiling puts forward a number of recommendations to address the issue of racial profiling.
From: OHRC Response to the Race Data and Traffic Stops in Ottawa Report
The OHRC agrees with and supports the recommendations laid out by the York University researchers. Specifically, the OPS should develop and implement solutions to address the anomalies of disproportionately high incidences of police stops of racialized groups.
