Democratic Control of the Police in Canada
Civilian review and oversight
has evolved slowly and gradually in Canada, beginning about twenty years
after its initial development in Britain and the United States at the
end of World War II (Goldsmith "External Review", Goldsmith
and Lewis Civilian Oversight, Susan Watt).
What brought this issue to the attention of the Canadian public was a
series of commissions and
inquiries investigating police conduct - in Saskatchewan (1965), Ontario
(1970, 1972, 1975 and 1976), and Quebec (1977) (Ian Jeffrey Ross 240).
The first legislation to more strictly regulate police practices was
introduced in Ontario in 1977 but it did not advance beyond third reading
in the Ontario Legislature. Three years later the first article on police
complaints was published in a Canadian police college journal (Rene).
Civilian
review in a formal sense commenced in 1981 when the Office of Public
Complaints was established in Ontario. In the decade following
Manitoba, the R.C.M.P, the city of Toronto, British Columbia, and Quebec
introduced some form of civilian review and eventually other jurisdictions
have followed suit (SusanWatt).
Two issues dominated discussions on civilian
review from the beginning - race relations and the use of excessive force – and
they continue to persist as fundamental problems.
Racism
Allegations
of police racial bias are commonly traced to the 1970s (Wortley Civilian
Governance 1), coinciding with, if not resulting from, increased
rates of immigration and public concern about police conduct regarding
visible
minorities. Racial issues in Canada, however, are deeper, larger, more
complex, and extend far beyond confrontations between police officers
and citizens during the last quarter of the twentieth century.
The term "race" has
been interpreted many different ways during the last five centuries.
Around 1900, "race" was redefined once again as it became the
integral part of various contemporary pseudo-scientific theories such
as Social Darwinism, phrenology, and eugenics. The Social Darwinists
promoted the idea that "races," represented by white Protestant
Europeans, evolved much further and faster and were able to adapt better
than other races. Phrenologists performed "head readings" and
character analyses of people from different "races." The eugenicists
championed sterilization programs for those of "inferior races." Each
of these perspectives became aspects of public policy and popular belief
in Canada during the first half of the twentieth century.
Despite European
attitudes toward First Nations people and the presence of slavery during
the colonial years, Canadians have tended to see themselves as "raceless." Race
for the most part has never been a recognized legal category of classification
in this country. Although there were numerous statutes on the books drawing
all sorts of racial distinctions, none used the words "race" or "racial" in
their titles. Canadian law, in most respects, has basically been silent
with respect to race. Thus, many Canadians may find it difficult to accept
that their legal system has established and enforced racial inequality
for many years (Backhouse 13-15). Those who are not convinced will want
to read Constance Backhouse's book, Colour-Codes; A Legal History of
Racism in Canada 1900-1950. She describes in some detail six cases involving
blatant racism: the legal prohibition of First Nations dance (1903),
the denial of fishing rights of First Nations people in Lake Ontario
(1921), a Saskatchewan law prohibiting Asians from employing white women
in restaurants (1924), Ku Klux Klan interference in an "inter-racial" relationship
in Ontario (1930), Eskimos being legally defined as Indians (1939), and
a Halifax woman prohibited from sitting on the main floor of a movie
theatre (1946). |