The media portrays Canada as a safe haven, racism free and Peacekeepers country, when in reality, it’s not. The same violent things that happen in the United States happen here in Canada, for instance, the killing of innocent black men. While the rate of these murders is not as high as they are in the United States, they are still just as concerning and should be taken as seriously as they are in America.
Being a black woman living in Canada, you might expect that I’d be knowledgeable about the racial profiling of young black men, but that’s not the case. This is also new to me and a shocking discovery I am not happy about. Not only are black men in Canada racially profiled by the police, in some cases, they are fatally shot and killed as well. The highest number of cases of these unfortunate events is in the city of Toronto, Ontario where the population of black people is higher than that of other cities in Canada and in other provinces where Ontario has 4.3% of black Canadians. Even though black people do have a decent amount of people representing them, that number could easily change due to the racial profiling that has lead to the unjust killing of them.
The stats show that since 1979 this has been an ongoing issue across the country. The first case being the death of Albert Johnson, a Jamaican immigrant, who had suffered from mental illness and was shot by the police in his own home. The cops who killed him went on trial and were charged with manslaughter but were later acquitted. Since then there have been 51 fateful killings of black men in Toronto alone as well as similar cases in other cities like Ottawa and Montreal, Quebec.
One of the most recent high-profile cases is that of the killing of Jermaine Carby from Toronto, Ontario (he lived in Brampton, Ontario) who was shot by the police in the summer of 2014 and was subject to racial profiling as well as what the Toronto police refer to as carding. Carding is random police checks that target young African-Canadian men and is the Canadian equivalent of the stop and frisk method American police use to stop young black men that appear ‘suspicious’. Carby was a passenger in a car with a friend that was pulled over by a police officer because their headlights were not on and their license plate appeared to be obscured. The police officer checked that the car was fine and decided to do a background check on Carby. At that time they discovered that he had a record of warrants from British Columbia. The discussion of his past record got heated and as recounted from police records, Carby pulled out a knife. The police officer then felt that he was a threat and unfortunately shot and killed him. Since then the case was ongoing up until the Summer of 2015 when the courts made the decision to not charge the police officer for the death of Carby. Even after no charges were made, questions still remain about if there was ever a knife involved in the first place.
America and Canada are both facing the same issues and some things in Canada continue to not change. For example, the media continues to not show the public the reality of the racism that exists in our country. With the reputation of being a nonviolent country, the idea of the public knowing that the police we have here in Canada are not as great as we perceive them to be is not an image they’d like to project. However, it is important for the media to let people know about these issues including carding and police brutality. The role of the media should be to inform citizens so they know that they can stand up to it just like the Black Lives Matter groups in the United States do. Having the ability to make these statistics lower and to make cases in which similar instances occur result in police officers that are guilty receiving the proper punishments and not getting acquitted for their crimes is something I feel could be solved with assistance and raising awareness through the media.
That said, the injustices and cases of these young black men being shot and killed are a family’s nightmare, but if we come together and recognize racism, carding and racially profiling we can put a stop to it and hopefully as a country provide a widespread feeling of safety and security for all those living in Canada.
For more information about Black Lives Matter Toronto check out their website or visit their Facebook page.
