Racial profiling.

• Author: Olsen, Erin
• Position: FEATURE on Criminal Law

A recent headline in The Globe and Mail proclaimed, "Police Use Profiling, Judge Says". Another headline refers to "Driving while black" to draw readers' attention to a story about racial profiling. Although the concept of racial profiling is not new, politicians, police chiefs, lawyers, judges, human rights groups, and citizens in Canada have all had something to say about it quite recently, primarily because there have been several criminal cases that have brought the issue to our attention. However, media reports of this issue tend to use inflammatory language, which often makes people defensive and less willing to examine their own conduct and possibility for change. These same reports spend very little time educating people about what racial profiling is, and steps that could be taken to address it. That is what I hope this article can start to do.

There is still some debate about how to define racial profiling. The courts and numerous criminal justice professionals have suggested varying definitions. For this article, I rely on a definition suggested by criminologist Thomas Gabor. It is similar to a definition suggested by the well-known criminal lawyer Alan Gold. It seems to be a good starting point, at the very least.

"Racial profiling is a form of racial bias whereby citizens are stopped, questioned, searched, or even arrested on the basis of their minority status per se rather than due to a demonstrated, elevated risk of lawbreaking."

Other definitions that consider the intent of the officer involved are problematic because some officers may describe the motivation for their actions to be concern for safety, security, and public protection, not overt racism. However, as the African Canadian Community Coalition on Racial Profiling (ACCCRP) points out, no matter the motivation, the impact of racial profiling is the same as profiling for other reasons: members of certain groups are singled out for differential scrutiny. Moreover, as the recent Ontario case of R. v. Khan pointed out, due to the seriousness of the allegation of racism, it would be improper to infer racist motivation in the absence of evidence that a particular officer actually had that intent. Thus, a definition that assumes the conduct in question is motivated by racial bias could be difficult to apply. There is no question that in a forum other than this article, though, an officer's motivation for conduct determined to be racial profiling could be important.

Does...