Long before he became Montreal’s police chief, Fady Dagher says he learned a lesson about racial profiling
It was in the 1990s and he was serving on the Montreal police anti-gang squad
He said it took a conversation with a gang member for him to understand what he was doing wrong as a police officer
“Fady, you just look at me as a Christmas tree,” Dagher recalled the man telling him
Decades later, Dagher is leading a department that has been rocked by a racism and misconduct scandal that forced it to dismantle a 16-member patrol unit. In June, three officers from the unit in the multicultural Montréal-Nord neighbourhood were suspended and face an investigation over allegations of criminal wrongdoing. Other members of the unit were reassigned
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Dagher said he has turned racial profiling as one of the causes he wants to address as a result of his previous experiences
He said officers in the 1990s did not fully understand the emerging hip-hop and rap culture and sometimes associated being Black, wearing gold or driving a luxury car with gang membership
But during his conversation with the gang member, he said the man pointed to a middle-aged white couple nearby, suggesting Dagher would pay little attention to them while scrutinizing him because of his appearance
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t see it coming,’” Dagher said. He said the encounter helped teach him to focus on behaviour rather than appearance
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Years later, Dagher said he found himself on the other side of racial profiling following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including while crossing borders to travel by plane. Born in Ivory Coast to parents of Lebanese origin, Dagher is the first racialized person to lead the Montreal police
He said he began providing training on racial profiling in 2004
Dagher’s reflections in the interview come as his own force faces intense scrutiny over racial profiling and police culture
One day earlier, residents pressed him and other police officials at Montreal city hall for answers about what was going on at the Montréal-Nord police station
Allegations made public in June included claims that officers cut the hair of racialized citizens and kept it as trophies
Dagher said that all three suspended officers belonged to the same 16-member patrol team, but that their suspensions stem from two separate incidents
Two officers suspended on June 12 are connected to one incident involving one person. A third officer, suspended on June 18, is connected to a separate event involving another person and different alleged conduct
Dagher described the second case as involving a “different gesture” that was nonetheless “very serious,” but he declined to provide further details
The information police had gathered by June 12 was serious enough that all 16 officers were disarmed that night, a move Dagher described as “unprecedented” in the history of the Montreal police
“It was so severe, it was so serious,” he said, adding “we didn’t want to take any chances.”
Dagher said he announced the dismantling that Friday night at a late evening news conference rather than wait until morning because members of the team were scheduled to work and he wanted to act quickly and be transparent with the public
He would not say when the two events involving the three suspended officers occurred. The investigations remain underway, and Montreal police are continuing to transmit material to Quebec’s prosecution service, which will ultimately determine whether criminal charges should be laid
While Dagher said the decision to dismantle the unit demonstrates that police are taking the allegations seriously, a community advocate said the response does not address deeper problems with racial profiling that have persisted for years
Joël DeBellefeuille, executive director of the Red Coalition, a Montreal organization that advocates against racial profiling, said he has known Dagher for years and believes the chief genuinely wants to address the issue
“I think he means well,” DeBellefeuille said
But he argued that experiencing racial profiling — and acknowledging having engaged in it himself — does not necessarily provide Dagher with the tools to eliminate it within the police force
DeBellefeuille was among the residents and advocates who challenged Dagher at Tuesday’s public consultation, where he pointed to what he described as 17 years of recurring concerns about racial profiling involving the Montréal-Nord station
He said he was disappointed by the measures presented by police, arguing that successive plans have repeatedly repackaged similar approaches without addressing what he sees as the underlying problem
“Was I satisfied? Absolutely not,” he added
