Bill C-407 (Historical)

Elimination of Racial and Religious Profiling Act

An Act to eliminate racial and religious profiling

This bill was last introduced in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session, which ended in March 2011.

This bill was previously introduced in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session.

Sponsor

Bill Siksay  NDP

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of June 4, 2009
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament often publishes better independent summaries.

The purpose of this enactment is to prevent individuals from being stopped or otherwise investigated by enforcement officers wholly or partly on the basis of the individual’s race, colour, ethnicity, ancestry, religion or place of origin.
The enactment prohibits the practice of racial and religious profiling. It also requires enforcement agencies to establish policies and procedures to eliminate racial and religious profiling, including the collection of data sufficient to determine whether enforcement officers have engaged in racial or religious profiling.
The enactment requires the Minister responsible for an enforcement agency to submit to Parliament each year a report of the agency on racial and religious profiling.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Elimination of Racial and Religious Profiling ActRoutine Proceedings

June 4th, 2009 / 10:05 a.m.


See context

NDP

Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-407, An Act to eliminate racial and religious profiling.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table again a private member's bill entitled, “An Act to eliminate racial and religious profiling”. This bill seeks to ban racial and religious profiling by federal law enforcement agencies and officials.

I and my NDP colleagues have been very moved and often angered by the experiences of racial and religious profiling shared with us by constituents and other Canadians. The impact of this practice has been very serious and costly to those who have been its victims and to our society. Such actions by law enforcement officers and agencies are based solely on false stereotypes. It is bad public policy and bad law enforcement practice, plain and simple.

This is an updated version of a bill introduced by the member for Vancouver East in the 38th Parliament. It defines racial and religious profiling as actions undertaken for reasons of safety, security, or public protection that rely on stereotypes about race, colour, ethnicity, ancestry, religion or place of origin rather than on reasonable suspicion to single out an individual for greater scrutiny or different treatment.

The bill would require the RCMP, customs, immigration, airport screening officers and CSIS agents to eliminate racial and religious profiling. Those agencies would report to Parliament on their progress. They would also be required to have a working analysis of how racism functions in their law enforcement context.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)