OHRC Releases report on Racial Profiling Inquiry
July 12, 2005
The Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) welcomes the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s (OHRC) recently released report on the Racial Profiling Inquiry.
The report details the racial profiling experiences of individuals and families across a broad range of institutions and other bodies in the public and private sectors. These findings in the report, entitled “Paying the Price: The Human Cost of Racial Profiling”, are its’ strength. In the report, the OHRC notes that racial profiling exists in the following broad range of public organizations and institutions and the private sector:
- police services across the province (including the OPP and RCMP)
- all levels of the criminal justice system including crown counsel, justices of the peace, judges, prison guards and officials and those involved in parole and probation;
- all levels of the education system, particularly those involved in any way with the Safe Schools Act and zero tolerance polices such as school board officials, school administrators, principals, teachers, guidance counsellors, Ministry of Education officials;
- the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency;
- private security companies;
- malls, stores, restaurants, bars, theatres, casinos;
- taxi companies; and
- airport and airline security.
These findings raise a number of concerns, many of which have been voiced by members of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI). OCASI supports the OHRC recommendation that all levels of government should act to end racial profiling in the public institutions within their jurisdiction, through implementing practices such as equitable hiring, anti-racism education and ongoing monitoring practices to identify problems and mechanisms to eliminate them.
These should be further strengthened by recommendations made by other commissions such as the Commission on Systemic Racism in the Criminal Justice System, as well as the recent report of the National Forum on Policing in a Multicultural Society, sponsored by Jean Augustine, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism
OCASI, together with the Equity and Accountability Coalition, called on the Ontario government to act immediately to address the findings of the OHRC report.
Click here for the full text of the report and for the OCASI Press Release.
The Equity and Accountability Coalition includes the following community organizations: African Canadian Social Development Council, Canadian Arab Federation, Canadian Tamil Congress, Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter, Council of Agencies Serving South Asians, Hispanic Development Council, Karuna Community Services, Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, Midaynta Association of Somali Service Agencies, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants and Urban Alliance on Race Relations