NORTH PRESTON, N.S. – The commander of the RCMP in Nova Scotia will apologize to the province’s Black community today for the Mounties’ historic use of street checks.
Assistant commissioner Dennis Daley will apologize to African Nova Scotians and all people of African descent during an event in North Preston, a predominantly Black community northeast of Halifax.
The apology will be livestreamed to several other locations, including the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre in Shelburne, N.S., and community halls in Sydney, New Glasgow, Gibson Woods, Greenville, Digby, Amherst and Monastery.
Now banned in Nova Scotia, street checks—also known as “carding” in other parts of Canada—involved police randomly stopping citizens to record their personal information and store it electronically.
A provincially commissioned study released in 2019 condemned the practice used by Halifax Regional Police and the province’s RCMP because it targeted young Black men and created a “disproportionate and negative” impact on African Nova Scotian communities.
In November 2019, then-Halifax police chief Daniel Kinsella issued a formal apology to the city’s Black community, acknowledging that police actions and words over the decades caused mistreatment and victimization.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.
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