Activists Respond to Repentigny, Que. Police Plan to Address Racial Profiling – Montreal | The Canadian News

Repentigny police have outlined an action plan that they hope will eliminate systemic racism. The plan will take about five years to implement all the steps.

The steps include five components in their series of initiatives. The components are the following: organizational culture, operations, human resources, communications and ecosystem.

However, this morning, black community organizations expressed their reservations regarding the plan announced by the police on September 16.

“This action plan was developed and adopted in response to many complaints and lawsuits related to racial profiling here in Repentigny, complaints with black communities,” said Fo Niemi, director of the Center for Action Research on Race Relations (CRARR).

A spokesperson for the Repentigny police department tells Global News that it takes time to build trust, which is why they are taking five years to implement the series of initiatives.

“Five years is not five days, it is too much for me. If maybe you do a meeting, call the community and then call the person involved in that situation, maybe they can try to get him to solve that problem, ”said Serge Damord, a community activist.

Jean-Rene Olivier’s mother also raised concerns about the new plan at this morning’s meeting. Marie-Mireille Bence lost her son in August when a Repentigny police officer shot her. The investigation into the shooting is still ongoing.

“More importantly, right now we have to help Ms Bence file a complaint of systemic racism with the Quebec human rights commission and the police ethics commission about what happened to her son and family on 1 August because, in the end, it’s about real people, ”Niemi said.

Repentigny police released their action plan in hopes of ending racial profiling in their city, but say the plan was already in place in September 2020.

They are the first in Quebec to adopt an action plan that will take into account racist or discriminatory interventions. The police department tells Global News that they teamed up with Agence Unea to help them become a more diverse and inclusive organization. They will keep the public informed as their action plan evolves.