African-Nova Scotian advocates call for street checks to be suspended

By The Canadian Press

HALIFAX – African-Nova Scotian social justice advocates are calling on Halifax Regional Police to suspend their use of street checks.

Halifax lawyer Shawna Hoyte and social workers Robert Wright and Lanna MacLean are asking for an independent review of the practice, and want it stopped in the meantime.

The trio wrote a three-page letter to the province’s Serious Incident Response Team and Human Rights Commission, outlining their concerns with the ethics behind street checks.

Street check statistics released by Halifax police indicate that black people in Nova Scotia are three times more likely to be stopped than white people.

Police say any information collected in a check is used to “prevent, detect and solve crime” in the community.

But the letter says the statistics reveal decades of segregation and marginalization of African Nova Scotians.

“African Nova Scotians have always known that they were being disproportionately targeted for surveillance by the police,” Wright said in a statement. “We feel the practice should stop, pending an independent investigation.”

An official with Nova Scotia’s Justice Department said SIRT and the Human Rights Commission will discuss the issue with the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner.

“Those agencies have strong expertise in appropriate police policy. We look forward to the outcome of their discussions,” Sarah Gillis, a spokesperson with the Justice Department, said in an email.

(Global News)

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