CONFRONTING RACIAL PROFILING
Racism, Policing and Community Responses

** free public forum **

Thursday February 21, 2008
7:00 PM to 9:30 PM

Holiday Inn Metrotown
4475 Central Blvd, Burnaby, BC
Across from Metrotown Skytrain station
Free underground parking available at hotel

Recent high-profile events like the Maher Arar Commission and the Frank Paul Inquiry have drawn public attention to the national problem of racial profiling in policing and the abuse of anti-terrorism practices.

Join us at a free public forum to discuss these issues and talk about community solutions. Representatives from immigrant-serving, Aboriginal, anti-racism and legal rights groups will share their thoughts. We’ll also hear from Charles C. Smith, author of the recently published book “Conflict, Crisis and Accountability: Racial Profiling and Law Enforcement in Canada”.

About the book “Conflict, Crisis and Accountability”
“Racial profiling contributes to mistrust, alienation and a diminished sense of citizenship and…threatens to undermine both the perceived and substantive equality of Canada’s Aboriginal and immigrant/ethnic communities. Charles C. Smith adds to the growing call for acknowledgement of the problem, along with policy initiatives to reverse this harmful trend.”
    – Dr. Sheema Khan, Columnist, Globe and Mail

Charles C. Smith is a consultant to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, and a Lecturer at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He was also Equity Advisor to the Canadian Bar Association and the first Equity Advisor for the Law Society of Upper Canada. He has authored numerous papers on racial profiling, equality and diversity and is also a published playwright, essayist and poet.

Presented by: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives; BC Civil Liberties Association; Canadian Race Relations Foundation; BC Teachers’ Federation; Hospital Employees' Union; MOSAIC

Co-sponsored by:
African Canadian Legal Association
Amnesty International BC
Anti-Dote Multiracial Girls’ and Womens’ Network
Association of Black Law Enforcers
Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society
Black Law Students’ Association of Canada
Canadian Arab Federation
Canadian Association of Black Lawyers
Canadian Islamic Congress
Centre for Native Policy and Research
Chinese Canadian National Council
Jamaican Canadian Association
Jews for a Just Peace
National Anti-Racism Council of Canada
Pacific Immigrant Resources Society
Pivot Legal Society
Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society (PICS)
rabble.ca
Stopwar.ca Coalition
United Native Nations

For more information please contact the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: ccpabc@policyalternataives.ca
or 604-801-5121.