Nova Scotia RCMP to apologize to Black community for historic use of street checks

The commander of the RCMP in Nova Scotia will apologize to the province’s Black community on Saturday for the Mounties’ historic use of street checks.

Now banned in Nova Scotia, street checks involve police randomly stopping citizens to record their personal information and store it electronically — a practice sometimes referred to as “carding” elsewhere in Canada.

A provincially commissioned study released in 2019 condemned the practice used by Halifax Regional Police and the local RCMP because it targeted young Black men and created a “disproportionate and negative” impact on African Nova Scotian communities.

The RCMP issued a statement today saying 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.

In November 2019, Halifax’s police chief issued a formal apology to the city’s Black community, saying the gesture was a first step toward dealing with a series of historic wrongs.

At the time, chief Daniel Kinsella acknowledged that officers’ actions and words over the decades had caused mistreatment and victimization.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2024.