This is how the Canadians see it. Notice the letters from the readers at the end of this news item.
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EDITORIAL
Of race and the police
Jul 25, 2009 04:30 AM
Two events in the news this week – one here in Toronto, the other south of the border – tell us that we have not yet entered a post-racial nirvana where skin colour is irrelevant.
In Toronto, the human rights tribunal said a police officer, Michael Shaw, was guilty of racial profiling when he stopped a black letter carrier delivering mail in the wealthy Bridle Path neighbourhood, questioned him, trailed him, and asked a white letter carrier to verify his identity. The fact that the letter carrier "was an African Canadian in an affluent neighbourhood was a factor, a significant factor, and probably the predominant factor, whether consciously or unconsciously, in Const. Shaw's actions," the human rights adjudicator found.
In response, Police Chief Bill Blair defended the constable and suggested the human rights tribunal has "a seriously flawed misunderstanding of the duties of a police officer."
In Cambridge, Mass., a black Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct in his own home after an altercation with a police officer investigating a report of a possible break-in. The Cambridge police department later dropped the charge and said the incident was "regrettable and unfortunate." But the officer himself, James Crowley, has refused to apologize.
Muddying the waters in these cases is that both Blair in Toronto and Crowley in Cambridge have exemplary records in the area of racial profiling. Under Blair, the Toronto police have worked hard with human rights officials to make sure officers are trained to deal with diversity in the city. "They're making a lot of progress," agrees Barbara Hall, chair of the human rights commission.
As for Crowley, he is regarded as an expert on racial profiling and has taught a class on the subject at a police academy.
All of which suggests, as President Barack Obama said in his news conference this week (see opposite), that while "incredible progress" has been made in race relations, "this still haunts us."
thestar.com |
