Racial Profiling in Canada: Challenging the Myth of "A Few Bad Apples."

Nanette Morton teaches English at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Authors of a study of racism in the Canadian press, Carol Tator and Frances Henry continue their dissection of Canadian society by looking at racial profiling in this country. This book was inspired by a series of articles on racial profiling in the Toronto Star. With the help of a statistician, the Star found that there were significant disparities between how Blacks and Whites were treated by law enforcement. Blacks were far more likely to be stopped by police and, when stopped, were significantly more likely to be ticketed and/or held without bail. The articles caused a firestorm, as many politicians and journalists denied that racial profiling existed.

Tator and Henry use an interdisciplinary approach, melding cultural studies, criminology, and critical race theory to examine not only police profiling, but the discourses that inform it. Drawing on the work of Foucault, Hall, and others, the authors write that race “is used as a proxy for criminality” and racial profiling “arises from the need to identify and manage ‘risky’ minority populations.” Tator and Henry expand the definition of profiling to include the justice system, the immigration system, and the media, and to analyze how African-Canadians are marginalized in each of these connecting sectors. Contributing author Charles Smith analyzes racial profiling in the U.K., the U.S., and Canada, exploring attempts to develop fair policing. Tator and Henry also consider how police culture contributes to racist practices, and use case studies to explore how the police and other public institutions responded to the Star articles. Another chapter, provided by Maurine Brown, includes stories of people who have been affected by racial profiling so that readers can attempt to understand how disturbing the experience is.

This book is a necessary read for anyone seriously studying contemporary race relations in Canada.