The fallout continues over the investigation into allegations of racism and discriminatory profiling by Montreal police (SPVM) officers in the borough of Montreal North. Monday, the Red Coalition held a public meeting to give people who have experienced racial profiling a chance to speak out. One by one, men shared their personal experiences, along with their fears and frustrations. This comes as more than a dozen officers in Montreal North are being investigated for alleged acts of racism, including claims that some of them cut or ripped out the dreadlocks of those being stopped to keep as trophies. The Red Coalition’s founder, Joel Debellefeuille, notably won an eight-year legal battle with Longueuil police (SPAL) on Montreal’s South Shore after officers followed him and his partner as they dropped their child off at daycare. “The people, the public, elected officials and law enforcement [must] see what’s going on, and can perhaps sympathize with some of these victims,” he said. Debellefeuille says it’s important for victims of racial profiling to share their stories - and many agree that the problems go well beyond Greater Montreal. Turell Daye tells CTV News he is still waiting for justice after he says he was jumped by multiple police officers in Longueuil while walking to a friend’s house. “Officers grabbed me and threw me up against the police car. Never told me what I was being stopped for,” he said. “Never read me my rights.” Kenrick McRae also says he’s been stopped by police dozens of times in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough. He says he’s won all of his court and Human Rights Commission cases, but adds he can’t understand why police wouldn’t open an investigation into conduct in his neighbourhood. “I’m winning the cases, and it’s all over the media, you know, and they didn’t see any urgency to investigate the police officers at Station 9,” he said. The Red Coalition has filed complaints with the police ethics and human rights commissions over Station 39 in Montreal North. It says it has also filed a complaint with the province’s ombudsperson, calling on them to investigate systemic racism within the entire force.
