Canada
Ville de Montréal
01-11-2018
15-06-2020
On 15th June 2020, the report on racism and systemic discrimination was launched after 15 months of work
The consultation is aimed at drawing a portrait of the situation of systemic racism, stimulating citizen contributions in order to identify solutions and concrete policy initiatives for the City of Montreal.
The commission in charge of the consultation visited 16 of the 19 boroughs of Montreal. Out of the 7,000 participants, more than 1,000 people shared their thoughts and proposed concrete solutions. Among them were ordinary citizens, city and borough civil servants, officials, representatives of organizations, university researchers, and experts from various backgrounds, all of whom contributed to the commission's work over a period of nearly fifteen months.
In March 2018, a citizen's collective launched a petition asking the City to hold a public consultation on systemic racism and discrimination, expressing concern about the lack of a municipal policy to combat systemic racism and discrimination, lack of political representation of racialized minorities and Aboriginal people, racial disparity in unemployment and poverty and the disproportionate criminalization in the municipal justice system.
In July 2018, the Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal received a request for a public consultation on systemic racism and discrimination, following the validation of more than 16,700 signatures by virtue of the "right to initiative" of the local government. At that time, the City of Montreal did not have a compilation of its interventions related to the fight against racism and discrimination. The committee relied on various techniques: panels of specialists, contributory activities in living environments, exchanges with municipal administration officials, oral and written opinions to bring out an inventory of fixtures and possible solutions developed in consultation with the population.
After the pre-consultation in almost every borough of the city, the consultation process started in May 2019, when the reference document was presented together with the applicants, and a Q&A time was allowed. Furthermore, the last week of May three thematic sessions (culture, employment and racial and social profiling) took place in different accessible locations, including free on-site childcare service and online streaming.
It was from June to September 2019 that so-called "Citizen contributory activities" took place. On this basis, every citizen of Montreal (+16 years old) could organize their own consultation just by downloading a kit to prepare a small-group discussion (4-8 people) and sending he contributions to the Office. These sessions, addressed to individuals, corporations, community organizations, unions and associations lasted 2 hours 30 mins each (check the guide here).
On 28 September 2018, this stage concluded with an OCPM-led activity structured around small group discussion aimed at finding concrete, innovative and mobilizing solutions.
Until 17th November, the consultation took place mostly online. However, this was combined with 3 on-site information sessions, which synthesized the contributions from the citizen activities and presented the consultation themes in preparation for the opinion hearing, which finally took place on 4th November 2019. You can more information about the process and events here.
The report following the consultation process was published on 15th June. One of its main findings is that the most common theme throughout the consultation process was racial and social profiling, entailing feelings of dehumanization and fear of law enforcement. The Commission considers that profiling is rampant within the police service, constituting violence against certain racialized groups in Montreal, and remains convinced that this phenomenon will continue as long as the organizational culture of the Montreal police service is not fundamentally challenged.
The report also highlights the employment sector: despite more than ten years of action plans for equal access to employment, the proportion of people who identify with the visible minority, ethnic minority or autochthonous categories hired as executives at the City since 2016 is 0%, and fewer than 2% of executives already in place identify with these categories.
Regarding territorial inequalities, the report notes that there is a high concentration of racialized people in the poorest neighbourhoods, which generally receive less public investment and municipal services. Thus, situations that appear to be cases of racial profiling of young people in some neighbourhoods could in fact be urban planning and housing problems. According to the report, land-use planning becomes the visual echo of the inequalities present in Montréal.
The report proposes 38 general and thematic recommendations to guide the municipal administration's decisions towards a change in the fight against systemic racism and discrimination, starting by recognizing the systemic nature of racism and discrimination while developing the means to understand and act on the mechanisms underlying these phenomena. You may find these recommendations starting from p. 17 of the English version of the report summary or p. 110 of the full report (only in French).
Sources and more information:
Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal website: full version in French; limited version in English.
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