Montreal man speaks out about the pain felt by the local black community

MONTREAL (CityNews) – A Montreal man is speaking out about the racism faced by the Black community in Quebec.

“I really don’t understand what it is, why black people always have to be on the forefront of being attacked,” Duraney White told CityNews.

“And we’re not alone. Cause this battle is not a black battle. This is a battle versus racism.”

Montreal’s black community said it has seen a surge of open racist comments online more than a week after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.

And although some politicians say racism and profiling don’t exist in Canada, the community is speaking up and telling their stories.

“It’s degrading and embarrassing and it’s completely uncalled for,” White said.

He said that he was a victim of racial profiling six years ago.

He claimed that two police officers pushed him and arrested him as he walked to buy food in downtown Montreal after his shift at a nightclub.

“The reason they had done that to me is that they were trying to accuse me for stepping on blood of a crime scene that occurred three hours earlier. The cops were three hours late to a crime scene. To me, that is racial profiling right there.”

But Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet said Tuesday that while some individuals need to be educated about racism, governments in this country are not the problem.

“I do not believe that the Canadian government or Quebec government or cities in Quebec are in any way shape or form racist,” Blanchet said.

He said the first step should “be to show our solidarity and friendship.”

And he said Canada could also quickly process applications from black people and other minorities from abroad seeking asylum.

“We have the power and the duty to do so. Let’s do it right away. Thus, we’ll be able to put our words into action, and this will make us more credible.”

Blanchet said historical racism has left “traces of odious things in our institutions that colour our relations with people of different origins or people who were here long before us,” though he resists the idea that federal, provincial or municipal governments are racist, or that we are all drawn into systemic discrimination today.

He compared that discussion to doing politics at a funeral, however, and said this is a time for expressing solidarity.

An independent study released in October 2019 revealed that Black and Arab men are 4.6 times more likely to be stopped by Montreal police than white men.

Calls then – and now – continue to push that police to be required to wear body cameras while on the job to hold SPVM officers accountable.

Community advocate, Balarama Holness, said there needs to be more accountability.

“I think this is a political issue that is still taboo. And it not very high on the agenda. And that is why we need more diverse candidates who for them its not going to be a political decision whether we can say there’s sexism or homophobia or systemic discrimination,” Holness told CityNews.

Premier François Legault said, “Because for the vast majority of Quebecers are not racist and I don’t see a system, an organized system, in police-community or anywhere that is having discrimination as a system.”

“I understand his position having to speak towards Quebec and elevate it. I can definitely understand that but its not the life that a black man lives in Montreal,” White said.