Introduction

• Author: David M. Tanovich
• Pages: 1-5

[1]

Introduction

The colour of justice in Canada is White. The unequal im-

pact of our criminal justice system begins w ith police surveillance.

If you are not White, you face a much greater risk of attracting

the attention of law enforcement off‌icials in public spaces such as

the highway, street, border, or airport. While it is true that many

Whites experience an unwanted encounter with the police, social

science evidence reveals that racialized individuals experience

far more of these encounters. In 1994, for example, 17 percent of

Black residents in Toronto reported having been stopped on two

or more occasions over the previous t wo years, compared to only 8

percent of White residents.1

The evidence further suggests that this increased police sur-

veillance is triggered by appearance, not behaviour. In 2000 a sur-

vey of Toronto high school students revealed that Black students

who were not involved in criminal, dev iant, or other activities that

would att ract pol ice attention were nevertheless fou r times more

likely to report being stopped and six times more likely to report

being searched than similarly situated White students.2 In Octo-

ber 2003 thirty-six Black police off‌icers in Toronto met to discuss