The summer of 2021 was the first time a unique course on racial profiling was offered by the University of Ottawa's (U of Ottawa) faculty of law and the Clinique juridique de Saint-Michel legal clinic. It has since garnered keen interest from Quebec university students.
"Following the publication of a report [Les interpellations policières à la lumière des identités racisées des personnes interpellées], which confirmed that Black individuals in Quebec were stopped and questioned at disproportionate rates to white individuals in 2019, we created a racial profiling committee at the clinic in order to train members, lawyers and law students on the legal realities of this issue," explained Fernando Belton, lecturer and general director of Clinique juridique de Saint-Michel.
According to Mr. Belton, a lawyer and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) graduate, the clinic was further spurred to take an interest in racial profiling by the global awakening that followed the death of George Floyd in May 2020.
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