Groups want probe into Vancouver police carding, citing racial profiling
VANCOUVER — Metis grandmother Elaine Durocher, who has lived on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for 11 years, says it’s time for an investigation into the disproportionate rate that Indigenous people are “carded” by Vancouver police.
The last time Durocher was stopped and asked for identification from police she was walking along Hastings Street with her granddaughter when she saw officers “harassing” someone and asked what was going on.
“My granddaughter’s little hand squinched into my hand, so I knew she was frightened,” Durocher said.
She is part of a group of civil rights, Indigenous and black leaders calling for British Columbia’s police complaints commissioner to investigate a significant racial disparity in the Vancouver police department’s use of carding.