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RACE RELATIONS 2008 • THE YEAR IN NUMBERS

964,000
 the estimated costs in dollars of the riot in Montreal-North after the fatal police shooting of Fredy Villanueva and the wounding of Denis Meas and Jeffrey Sagor on August 9, 2008.
500,000
 the approximate amount of compensation ordered by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal against the RCMP for racially discriminating against its Iranian Canadian officer Ali Tahmourpour.  Although moral and punitive damages are set at $30,500, back salaries and legal fees plus interest made this of one of the most important cases of racism in federal employment. Systemic remedies were also ordered. The RCMP has appealed the decision.
86,600
 the amount of financial compensation negotiated by CRARR for its clients to settle cases of racism in employment, services and union representation.
67,000
 the amount of damages recommended by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission in 2008 to five Black and Arab CRARR clients who were victims of racial profiling and biased police practices in 2003.  The City of Montreal as respondent and employer of the police systematically contests the Commission’s decisions in court.
60,000
 the amount of damages recommended by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission in 2008 for Gemma Raeburn, Peter Charles and Frederick Peters, three Black Montrealers in their late 50s, as a result of a police racism complaint filed by CRARR in 2004.  The case is heading to the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal in 2009 as the City of Montreal refused to comply with the order.
45,000
 the amount of damages awarded by the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal to Evens Marseille, a Black Montrealer who was stabbed in 2002 by neo-Nazi skin heads and who was assisted by CRARR for 5 years. It was one of the highest amounts of damages awarded in a civil rights case in Quebec. One respondent cannot be found to have this decision executed.
42,000
 the amount of damages recommended by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission to a CRARR-assisted Montreal Transit Corporation Black security guard who was fired in 2003 based on the abusive and unfair use of police information about his background.
30,000
 the amount of damages awarded by the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal to Jean-Ulrick Pavilus, a Black correctional officer who was racially harassed and fired from his job at the provincial jail in Saint-Jérôme, South of Montreal.  Material damages were also granted to him for loss of salaries and benefits.  The court also ordered his reintegration. Two other Black correctional officers were also fired from the same jail in 2004 and are represented by CRARR before the Quebec human rights commission.
15,000
 the amount of damages awarded by the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal to Theo Wouters and RogerThibault, a Montreal gay couple who was a target of homophobic harassment in 2003.  Represented by CRARR, the couple received one of the highest amounts of damages for anti-gay discrimination in Quebec.
8,000
 the amount of damages recommended in 2007 by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission to Cecilio Rous, a 71-year old Filipino Montrealer who was racially harassed by his neighbor in 2003.  It took one year of legal negotiation by the Commission and CRARR for Mr. Rous to receive this amount.
6,000
 the amount of damages ordered against John Beck in Kelowna, B.C. by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in the case of CRARR v. bcwhitepride.com and John Beck, involving racist, anti-semitic and anti-immigrant materials posted on the internet.  It was CRARR’s first legal victory in internet hate case.
131
 the number of new clients who called upon CRARR’s service to assist victims of discrimination, two-third of whom involved racism.  A rising trend: more and more persons of Middle-Eastern backgrounds complained of racism in employment, while 95% of cases of racially biased law enforcement involved Black persons.
73
 the number of medical internship positions left vacant by Quebec medical schools while many foreign trained doctors were turned down. In 2007, CRARR successfully requested the Quebec human rights commission to launch a systemic discrimination inquiry into the medical internship program after 174 foreign trained doctors were rejected and 87 positions were left vacant despite the serious shortage of doctors in Quebec.
27.8
 the 2007 unemployment percentage rate among North African immigrants in Montreal who are from the Maghreb region, while the average rate was 6.3%. Quebec has the one of lowest immigrant employment rates in Canada.
21
 the number of broad policy measures with more than 150 actions and initiatives announced in October 2008 by the Quebec Government between 2008 and 2013 to promote immigrant integration, combat racism and value diversity (see www.micc.gouv.qc.ca)
14
 the number of months taken by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission to decide that a CRARR-assisted harassment complaint filed in October 2007 by a disabled man living in public housing was deemed “receivable” before the investigation or mediation could start.
10
 the net increase in positions held by Anglophones in the Quebec civil service between 2002 and 2007.
8.8
 the percentage of the Quebec population from visible minorities (654,300, according to the 2006 Census). The vast majority (90.2%) of the visible minorities in Quebec lived in the census metropolitan area of Montréal.  Blacks and Arabs are the largest minority groups in Quebec, at 188,100 and 109,000 respectively.  While 6 in 10 Blacks in Quebec were born outside Canada, 72% of Arabs were born outside Canada; about 37.7% of Arabs who were foreign-born came to Canada between 2001 and 2006. 
8
 the record-high number of 125 Members of the Quebec National Assembly who are non-white or of non-European/biracial background after the December 8, 2008 election: Yolande James, Emmanuel Dubourg, Fatima Houda-Pépin, Sam Hamad and George Mamelonet (Liberal Party); Maka Kotto and François Rebello (Parti Québécois) and Amir Khadir (Québec Solidaire).
6
 the number of weeks given to Montreal Police Officer Jean-Loup Lapointe to provide a written account to the Quebec Provincial Police investigation into his shooting of three youths in Montreal North.  Most civilian witnesses of the shooting, including the wounded youths, were interrogated within 48 hours.
5
 the number of years taken by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission to render a decision in an employment racism case filed by CRARR in 2003 against the Montreal Transit Corporation.
5
 the number of appeals for review filed by CRARR to the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission to reconsider and annul its own decisions in which serious errors in fact and in law were made, causing prejudice to CRARR’s clients. As of December 30, 2008, the Commission reversed two decisions and declined in another case.
4
 the number of shots fired by police officer Jean-Loup Lapointe at the three youths in Montreal North, which led to the full-scale riot.
4
 the number of years Azim Ibragimov was ordered by the Quebec Court spend in prison for committing arson and attacks on Montreal Jewish institutions.
4
 the average number of years taken by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission to complete investigations into many CRARR’s complaints of discrimination.
4.1
 the percentage of Quebec civil service employees who are from ethnic and visible minorities, as of March 31, 2007.  In 1981, the rate was 2.7%.
4
 the number of 75 Quebec members of the House of Commons elected after the October 14, 2008 who are non-white or of non-European/biracial backgrounds: Marlene Jennings (Liberal) and Meili Faille, Maria Mourani and Ève-Marie Thaï Thi Lac (Bloc Québécois).
3
 the number of appeals for review filed by CRARR to the Police Ethics Committee to set aside the Police Ethics Commissioner’s decisions in which serious factual errors were identified, causing prejudice to the complainants who filed complaints of race-based police misconduct. As of December 30, 2008, one decision was reversed by the Committee and another, to be heard in February 2009.
3.7
 the millions of dollars spent on the Bouchard-Taylor Commission to conduct public hearings and studies related to reasonable accommodation in Quebec. The Commission made 37 recommendations and produced 13 expert reports
2
 the number of lawsuits filed by the Montreal Police union and police officers to stop two public coroner’s inquests into police interventions resulting in the death of Michel Berniquez and Mohammed Anas Bennis.  In the Berniquez case, the Quebec Superior Court shut down the coroner’s inquiry, making it the first time in Quebec legal history that the courts did so.
1
 the number of years of probation ordered by the Quebec Court against Rouba Elmerhebi Fahd, the mother of Sleiman Elmerhebi who set fire to a Montreal Jewish school library in 2004.  She was charged with aiding her son to escape the law.
0
 the number of visible minorities among the 19,869 indeterminate and term appointments greater than three months to the federal public service, as reported by the Public Service Commission in its 2007-2008 Annual Report.  While visible minorities are one of the four groups designated by the federal Employment Equity Act to be reported in federal civil service data, the Commission reported no data on this group this year, while it did so for women (at 58 % of all appointments); aboriginal peoples, at 3.4% and people with disabilities, at 2.5%.
0
 the number of Aboriginal Members of the Quebec National Assembly after the December 8 elections (Alex Wawanoloath of the Parti Québécois, elected in 2007, was defeated).
0
 the number of decisions rendered by the Police Ethics Committee, a specialized tribunal, after investigating citizen complaints of racial profiling in 2008. The Commissioner’s 2006 case of racial profiling in Quebec City remains the first and only decision on this issue.
0
 the number of decisions rendered by the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal on systemic racism in 2008.  In fact, there has not been a single case of systemic racism brought by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission to the Tribunal in the last ten years.
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