The CBC reports that the number of street checks by Halifax Regional Police has decreased over the last two years. However, that decrease has mostly benefited white people. The likelihood a member of a visible minority will be subjected to a street check has increased relative to a white person’s chances.
Kendall Worth reports how at times people on Income Assistance who have involuntary body behaviours like fidgeting or talking to themselves but are just minding their own business are being bothered by police or private security guards.”I recently learned of three people who had this happen to them in Halifax. As you will see, one of those three incidents ended up badly,” he writes.
Didn’t hear much about the police check study over the summer, but the NS Human Rights Commission recently launched an online survey asking all HRM residents about their encounters with police. We have long argued that what is needed is not yet another study, but an immediate stop to the racist practice, but maybe the survey has some redeeming qualities.
Halifax city employees who suffered racism, misogyny and bullying at work, can now call a tip line. As well, the process to hire a consultant to look at safe workplace issues has been set in motion. But are these measures designed to really fix this problem, or are they a distraction?
Equity Watch, a group opposed to workplace bullying and discrimination, calls for an independent inquiry into workplace conditions at the Halifax Regional Municipality after the latest revelations about racism at Halifax Transit.
These days you pretty well need a criminal record check for any job that’s out there., says Kendall Worth. But these things cost $50, and when you’re on welfare and all you get is $275 then that’s a lot of money. If society really wants people on social assistance to find jobs, then either the police should waive the fee, or Community Services should pick up the bill.
Jason MacLean, president of the NSGEU, was pulled over for driving with a tinted window. At least, that’s the police officer’s story. MacLean is convinced he was pulled over because he is Black.
I wasn’t there, but by the sounds of it Halifax police seriously overreacted when May Day marchers slowed down traffic on Gottingen a bit, while mere minutes away from their destination.
Halifax police much more likely to arrest Black people for marijuana possession. Oh no, what could possibly explain that?
As police street checks continue unabated in Halifax and all of Nova Scotia, members of the African Nova Scotian communities and their allies are collecting signatures for a petition asking that the racist practice be banned province-wide.