Consumer racial profiling a top concern for visible minorities: survey

A recent online survey by the Institute for Research and Education on Race Relations (IRERR) indicates that consumer racial profiling is emerging as a top concern for visible minorities.

Conducted on behalf of The Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) the online survey questioned 160 people about their lived experiences. From those who took part in this online survey, 45 per cent are French-speaking and 55 per cent are English-speaking. Blacks and Arabs make up 38.8 per cent and 28.8 per cent of the respondents, respectively.

Their responses indicate that retail businesses routinely and excessively scrutinize, intercept, detain, and accuse of shoplifting mostly Black, Arab, and Indigenous individuals in banks, department stores, and other commercial services.

The findings of this survey indicate that from the 160 survey participants, among the 122 (76.3 per cent) who reported having been victims of racial profiling in the Greater Montreal Area, almost half reported they were profiled when accessing commercial establishments and services.

“When we hear about racial profiling, we most often hear about it in the context of policing, but it’s actually happening across several other sectors of society as well,” said CURE (Communities United for Racial Equality) Project’s Deputy Coordinator Stéphane Thalès. “Businesses and schools need to pay more attention to racial profiling,” he added.

“Since the focus is mostly on policing the surprise is that ding, ding, ding, ding. This comes out of the box now. Right the numbers, that it commerce, me as a as an individual, I’m not surprised that it happens in commerce, how many times has it happened to me?” he asked.

CityNews reached out to the Quebec Retail Council for comment, they responded back saying that the person who could comment on the topic was unavailable, and they could not provide us with anything further.

In a statement to CityNews, the Quebec government said:

“Let’s be clear, racial profiling is not acceptable. Our role is to ensure that the Private Security Bureau applies the Private Security Act and its regulations. There are standards of behaviour to be respected by private security guards. If an individual feels aggrieved by an officer, they can file a complaint with the Bureau. We also plan to raise the awareness of private security firms.

“Our government is continuing the work and wants to improve the measures to counter racial profiling, it is a priority. On the other hand, we must not forget that it is the responsibility of each employer to sensitize its employees to the fight against racism.”

Education and employment also areas where racial profiling found

The other two areas of concern for visible minorities, according to the online survey, are education and employment. Racial profiling in policing ranks fourth.

Among the numerous racial profiling incidents respondents recalled having experienced in the last 5 years, the sectors in which participants had experienced the most incidents of racial profiling were the commercial services sector (19.7 per cent of incidents) and the education sector (17.5 per cent of incidents), followed by the employment (14.1 per cent) and policing sectors (11.1 per cent).

“We took note of the fact that racial profiling in commerce and education ranked first and second in terms of reported experiences and concerns for racial profiling victims,” Fo Niemi, CRARR Executive Director said. “This requires expanding our focus to retail business and schools,” he added.

Ample local examples of consumer racial profiling

In the last five years, CRARR says it has had two dozen complaints of consumer racial profiling (also known as Shopping While Black) in Quebec. Past cases include that of a Black woman shopping for furniture in the West Island who was reported

By store employees to the police and arrested because of being mistakenly associated with a Black man charged with credit card fraud, and an Arab man in Laval who was denied opening a bank account and reported to the police due to suspicion of using fake IDs.

The Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) is calling on retail businesses and the private security industry in Quebec to invest more in training and revising their practices to avoid exposing their clientele to racial discrimination.

In Nova Scotia, Ontario and B.C., courts have started to find major businesses liable for consumer racial profiling. In Quebec, the problem has yet to receive major public attention.

Biased treatment of minority youths in school

CRARR says that racial profiling in education also appears to be a growing problem based on reports by public agencies such as the Laurent Commission and the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission.

“Often young people are being stopped, have been checked, and they’re being let go and they don’t realize that they have been profiled,” said Niemi.

Biased treatments of Black and Arab youths in high schools persists, where they are often accused of being involved in the drug trade and gang activity. Black and Arab teens are also disproportionately reported to youth protection and to police.

CRARR is calling on agencies such as the Private Security Bureau, bankers and pharmacists associations, major department stores, supermarkets and shopping centers to address consumer racial profiling by developing policy, training and prevention measures.

Elementary and high schools in particular also need to invest in similar measures to avoid becoming “pipelines to prisons” by criminalizing racialized youths.

The CURE project will be releasing the results of its review of tribunal decisions on racial profiling in Quebec from 2016 to 2021 at the end of January.