Montreal police racism reports span four decades, court rules systemic

Montreal police have faced repeated allegations of racism and discriminatory practices over four decades, documented in reports, inquiries and lawsuits. The earliest, the Bellemare Commission, was launched after a police officer shot and killed Antony Griffin, a 19-year-old Black man, in 1987. The commission’s report, authored by lawyer Jacques Bellemare, identified discriminatory practices and persistent tensions between police and racialised communities. It recommended training, oversight reforms and hiring more officers from diverse backgrounds, leading to the creation of the police ethics commissioner in 1990.

In 2008, the police killing of Fredy Villanueva, an 18-year-old, in Montréal-Nord prompted a Quebec Ombudsman special report. The report found systemic issues in police oversight and contributed to the creation of Quebec’s independent police watchdog, the BEI. A 2019 report by three independent researchers, commissioned by the city, found Black and Indigenous people were four to five times more likely to be stopped by Montreal police. A 2023 follow-up report showed those figures had remained virtually unchanged.

In 2024, a Quebec Superior Court judge ruled that racial profiling is a systemic issue in Montreal’s police force, a decision stemming from a class-action lawsuit. The city has appealed the ruling. Montreal’s public consultation office also raised concerns in 2020 about a “culture of impunity” within the police force, citing complaints about the credibility of oversight bodies.

What the coverage left out

No right-rated outlet among the 17 that ran the story published any report or digest on it. None of the digests from left or centre outlets mentioned the city’s appeal of the 2024 court ruling, though Medicine Hat News included it in its full report.