By Dan Spector Global News Posted April 11, 2022 5:59 pm Updated April 11, 2022 8:17 pm A new initiative is encouraging people in Montreal and Ottawa to film police interventions. “Basically, we’re the neighbourhood watch for the police,” said Joel Debellefeuille, founder of the Red Coalition, a group that fights racism and discrimination. He’s encouraging people to take their phones out and hit record when police show up, and send the videos to the new Red Coalition Watchdog Program. The goal, Debellefeuille said, is to compile images of officers breaching peoples’ rights and to add them to a database.  Read More

By Phil Carpenter Global News Posted April 6, 2022 6:44 pm Updated April 7, 2022 11:40 am Questions are once again being raised about how much is being spent on policing in the city of Montreal. A study released Wednesday by L’Institut de recherche et d’informations socioéconomiques (IRIS) and the L’observatoire des inégalités raciales au Québec (OIRQ) claims that the rate of increase in funding for the Montreal police department is far higher than for other sectors. “There’s a mismatch right now between where we put the money and where the needs are,” IRIS researcher Guillaume Hébert told Global News. “In most of the cities of North America, actually.”  Read More

A Montreal woman says her normal commute to work quickly turned to distress after an encounter with police. Melody Ryder says she got off the bus near Parc Avenue and Fairmount west in Montreal on Wednesday and quickly crossed the street, when a Montreal police officer stopped her. Ryder claims before the officer said why she was being stopped — for jay-walking — he grabbed her arm multiple times. Right after the alleged incident, she took out her phone and started recording the next few minutes of the interaction. She says she was mistreated and is left with bruises.  Read More

By Alyssia Rubertucci, Posted Feb 16, 2022, 2:10PM EST. Last Updated Feb 17, 2022, 9:44AM EST. Complaints filed against Quebec police officers with the ethics commission have skyrocketed. In the span of 20 years – it’s more than doubled. In 2021, more than 2,400 complaints were filed. Some who handle cases on racial profiling say this sharp increase points directly to systemic racism.  Read More

Images from a textbook at Centennial High School in Greenfield Park, Quebec has been called out as racist. Local business owner and civil rights advocate Joel DeBellefeuille was tagged on social media in a photo posted by a longtime friend whose child attends the high school on Montreal’s South Shore. DeBellefeuille shared one photo of a page featuring illustrations of gangsters, at least one of whom is clearly a caricature of a person of colour.  Read More

Quebec man’s funds withheld for nearly two months...  Read More