MONTREAL - Quebec's human rights commission is launching hearings into racial profiling in the province because it believes minorities are unfairly targeted by authorities.
"Some might say that there is no racial profiling . . . that Quebecers are not racist and not discriminating and others might say that they are," commission president Gaetan Cousineau said Wednesday.
"We believe that it exists and we affirm it in this document and we've seen examples . . . there are consequences and as a society we should be able to make it better and change that."
Cousineau was referring to a document published by the commission that contains interviews with 150 teens and young adults who complained about racial profiling.
Many of them were afraid to come forward and were frustrated by attempts to seek justice.
Cousineau said the time is ripe for a productive discussion and that the commission has dealt with at least 100 complaints of racial profiling since 2005.
Seven of those cases remained stalled at tribunal level because of tactics by Montreal police and the city, Cousineau said. Others have been settled.
Community groups and minority associations applauded the initiative as a way of dealing with what they say is a national issue.
Other provinces have undertaken different approaches to tackling the problem.
Police in Kingston, Ont., conducted a study of its police force's arrest practices and found evidence of profiling in 2005.
Toronto's top cop acknowledged in an extensive study conducted by a Toronto newspaper that racial profiling is a factor with policing in the city.
Bill Blair did not dispute findings that showed black people across the city were three times more likely to be stopped and documented by police than white people
"It's everywhere in Canada," said Michael Farkas, a black community worker in Montreal.
"We need to change our practices as a society."
The issue of racial profiling in Quebec reached a fever pitch in August 2008 after police shot and killed Fredy Villanueva, 18, sparking riots and looting.
Montreal police say they will make a presentation at the May and June hearings, but deputy police chief Jean-Guy Gagnon said complaints against the police are minimal considering the two million interventions yearly.
"We have more than 4,600 officers on the ground and (racial profiling) could happen unconsciously," Gagnon admitted.
"But we're working to do a lot of prevention, training, working with community members."
Experts also cautioned the discussion shouldn't stray from racial profiling to the province's other raging debate: the reasonable accommodation of minorities.
"It's a very different landscape right now and we have to be very conscious of the fact that, both socially and politically, there has been a growing evidence of open intolerance towards diversity, towards immigrants," said Fo Niemi, executive-director of the Montreal-based Center for Research-Action on Race Relations.
"We have to be very careful not to mix the issue of racial profiling and unfair criminalization of people of colour with other (instances)."
The commission expects to release findings and recommendations by the end of the year.