Accused cocaine importer walks due to ‘racial profiling’
Pulling someone over for driving while Black — indefensible. Suspecting someone of being a shoplifter by virtue of their skin colour — unconscionable.
These and many other disturbing examples of racial profiling in our society are rightly condemned.
But when it is used by accused criminals to wiggle out of charges?
A man charged with importing a whopping 23 kilos of cocaine had his charges stayed recently after an Ontario judge found the RCMP officer at Toronto Pearson Airport racially profiled him and violated his Charter rights — even though he had other “reasonable” grounds to suspect him.
“Questioning a traveller at the border cannot be based on race. There is no dispute that anti-Black racism is prevalent in Canada and continues to be a reality in Canadian society. The courts have an obligation to take claims of racial profiling seriously,” wrote Superior Court Justice Nancy Dennison.
“Where race or racial stereotypes are used to any degree to select the suspect, it is racial profiling. It does not matter if police had another justifiable basis to detain the individual.”
Ian Edwards was arrested on Sept. 17, 2018 after returning home from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, on an Air Transat flight. The Jamaican-born Canadian citizen had declared on his customs form that he was over his liquor limit but after being directed to a border agent, he was told his two bottles were fine.
But the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officer had other concerns about Edwards: he’d booked his ticket just two days before the trip, it was only for four days and he’d travelled three times in the last couple of months to the Dominican Republic, which is considered a drug source country. He was also sweating, mumbling and not responsive to the officer’s questions, she said, including not knowing where he stayed.
So she sent Edwards to secondary inspection on suspicion for narcotics. Another traveller from his flight was sent there as well.
Edwards argued he was only selected by the border agent due to him being a Black man, but the judge disagreed.
Dennison, though, did have issues with the arresting RCMP officer identified only as “Supt. Ryan.”
