African Canadian Legal Clinic Wins In Racial Profiling Case

In a recently-released racial profiling decision from Ontario's Divisional Court, the African Canadian Legal Clinic (ACLC) successfully argued that actions of the Ontario's Human Rights Commission cannot be used by Ontario's Human Rights Tribunal to ignore and dismiss African Canadian perspectives on how to systemically expose and uproot racial profiling in policing.

The Ontario Divisional Court released the decision in the racial profiling case of Aiken v. the Ottawa Police Services Board (OPSB) on June 15, 2015. In this case the ACLC successfully argued before three judges of the Divisional Court that a racial profiling settlement between the OPS and the Ontario Human Rights Commission (the Commission) does not bar a young African Canadian man from seeking his own systemic human rights remedies independent of the settlement agreement between the other two parties.

This case originates from a 2005 racial profiling complaint made by Chad Aiken against the OPSB.

As a specialty clinic funded by Legal Aid Ontario, the African Canadian Legal Clinic (ACLC) provides advice and represents African Canadians in a number of legal forums through test cases.  The ACLC also administers the African Canadian Youth Justice Program, Adult Justice Program and Youth Justice Education Program.

For further information, contact: Roger Love, Advice Counsel, African Canadian Legal Clinic via phone at 416-214-4747 Ext. 25, or via email at lovero@lao.on.ca

See PDF document below for full details from the ACLC.