
Using access to information laws, CBC News investigated 120 complaints against Halifax police. They were able to get at the records despite resistance by the police bureaucracy.
The idea was to allow the public to have a peek at how the type of complaints that are lodged and to understand how police handle them, especially those involving racial discrimination.
Despite the fact that Black Canadians have complained about racist police treatment for many years, the investigation found that 12 of the complaints involved racial profiling, and in every case the police found that the officers did nothing wrong.
A typical case that is still working its way towards a public hearing is that of Kayla Borden of Dartmouth. The Black woman’s car was mistaken for a stolen car. She was stopped and handcuffed before the error was discovered. The police dismissed the racial profiling charge she brought against them. She got a lawyer and will have a public hearing.
The investigation pointed out that Halifax Police Chief Dan Kinsella’s claim that reads all complaints pertaining to racial profiling and found that the number weren’t high.
But the 12 cases the investigation flagged, especially in the way the records were prepared and investigated, reveal a disturbing mode of operation that does not put the claim of Chief Kinsella in a favorable light.
First of all, one of the cases CBC highlighted the race of the complainant was redacted. Six “racial bias” complaints were made by drivers who came into contact with the police. There

remaining complaints dealt with interactions like pedestrian stops. In every case the verdict was that the police did no wrong.
In the meantime, some of the cases remain open for further enquiry as the complainants pressed to give the issue of racial profiling a proper hearing.