The Human Rights Approach to Addressing Racial Profiling: The Activity of the Ontario Human Rights Commission

• Author: Shaheen Azmi
• Pages: 51-57

51

ChAPTeR 2

The Human Rights Approach

to Addressing Racial Prof‌iling

The Activity of the Ontario

Human Rights Commission

shahEEn azmi*

A. SU MMARY

In 2015 the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) embarked on a

new round of activity in response to ongoing concerns of racial prof‌iling.

This activity ca me in the shadow of more than a decade of activity aimed

at curbing and preventing racial prof‌iling and grow ing recognition of new

shapes and forms of racial prof‌iling in multiple sectors and settings.

B. BACKGROUND TO CURRENT POLICY DEVELOPM ENT

The Ontario Human Rights Commission employed multiple approaches

in responding to racial prof‌iling since 2002 . Racial prof‌iling has long been

understood as a type of racism but its framing as a type of illegal dis-

crimination in violation of human rights legislation was not signif‌icantly

developed in Canada prior to the OHRC’s work.

In 2002 a series of articles by the Toronto Star on race and policing

in Toronto provided fresh evidence of the reality of racial bias in police

activity by the Toronto Police Service.1 In direct response to the contro-

versy raised by Toronto Star articles, the OHRC announced that it would

conduct an inquiry into the ef‌fects of racial prof‌iling. Racia l prof‌iling was

def‌ined for the purposes of the inquiry as “any action undertaken for

* Shaheen Azmi i s the director of policy, education, monitori ng, and outreach at the

Ontario Human R ights Commission.

1 Jim Rankin et a l, “Singled Out; Star Analy sis of Police Crime Data Shows Justice Is

Dif‌ferent for Blacks and W hites” Toronto Star (19 October 2002), online: w ww.thestar.

com/news/gta/knowntopolice/2002/10/19/singled-out.html.