A proposed $125 million racial profiling class-action lawsuit was filed Monday in Superior Court against the Peel Police Services Board and Peel Region’s former chief of police

Three civilian plaintiffs and two legal advocacy groups that represent racial minorities are asking for damages as a result of alleged systemic racial profiling in the Peel police force.

None of the allegations have been proven in court. The class action must still be certified by a judge before it can go forward.

Peel police officials did not have a response at press time.

Former chief Mike Metcalf, who retired from the force last year is named in the suit. The Black Action Defense Committee, one of the two advocacy groups, filed a similar class-action suit seeking $65 million two weeks ago against Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair and the Toronto Police Services Board.

The lawyer representing the plaintiffs said more people will be joining the class action in Peel and that the initial amount of the damages being sought in Peel is much higher because there are three civilian plaintiffs compared to none in the Toronto suit.

He added that the damages being sought in Toronto will also go up if more civilian plaintiffs join the lawsuit.

Asked why Metcalf, who is no longer the chief, was named, Munyonzwe Hamalengwa said he was head of the force during the “relevant time.”

He also brought up Metcalf's reaction to a finding against the force by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

In 2007, after the commission found a Peel officer guilty of racial profiling in a shoplifting case, Metcalf said he was “disappointed” with the finding and challenged the commission’s assertion that his department needed better training to avoid racial profiling.

“That's why we named him,” Hamalengwa said. “The most recent chief was against any kind of acceptance that racial profiling occurs or that the police force needs to be more accountable in dealing with the occurrence of systemic racial profiling.”

The Toronto Star has for a decade produced statistical analysis of Toronto police records that have clearly indicated the existence of systemic racial profiling.

But Hamalengwa said in Peel, where 60 per cent of the population belongs to visible minority groups, lawyers see the same pattern.

“People of Indian origin and African origin, there are obvious elements of racial profiling in Peel Region.”

He said raw data will come out in the courts through the lawsuit.

The three civilians named as plaintiffs are Andrew Hewitt-Morris, Junior Ebagua and Yafet Tewelde. The suit details their alleged interactions with Peel police. For example, it claims in 2000, Hewitt-Morris, then 13, was walking with a friend after playing basketball when a Peel police constable approached and asked why they didn't yet have a criminal record. He allegedly said their names would be put into the “gang book” and when police stopped them in the future “red flags” would be raised.

After the Star recently did an extensive analysis of “carding” by Toronto police, whereby personal information of individuals was gathered despite no charges being laid, Toronto Police Board Chair Alok Mukherjee called the practice, which targeted black and brown racial minorities “devastating” and “unacceptable”.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Two weeks ago he called for swift changes, including the purging of carding data that had been obtained.

The Toronto suit names Blair and the civilian police services board as defendants and alleges police and the board have failed to adequately address a problem that has impacted blacks and other minority groups for decades.