Home ● Services ● Experience ● Articles ● Quicklaw Articles ● Book Review ●Publications ● Work in Progress ● The Media ● Link Sites ● Contact ● Your Suggestions

AFRICAN CANADIANS

UNDER LEGAL, JUDICIAL, POLICE

AND MEDIA ATTACK: A SYNOPSIS OF THE STATE OF 

AFFAIRS IN 1994

EDITED BY:  MUNYONZWE HAMALENGWA

Today's topic is "African-Canadians Under Legal, Judicial, Police and Media Attack".  Most of the speakers, if not all the speakers, will be examining either general issues on this topic or specific issues.  My remarks will be limited to giving examples of how Blacks had been under attack in the political system, under the legal and judicial system, police and the media.  These examples are not exhaustive.  Others will give more far-reaching examples than I can.  And I will leave some of the specific examples to them.  And we hope that each speaker will propose at the end of the day or at the end of their speeches, concrete plans of action, what we should do to ameliorate the increasing attacks, what we should do to respond to these attacks.

It is my thesis that African-Canadians have been under increasing attacks in the political system, in the law by the judges, by the police, and by the media.  This thing is not new.  It has always been the case.  But in the recent past the attacks have been more virulent, consistent, deep and broad.  There is some pathological reaction going out there in the mainstream society against the African-Canadians.  The recent attacks are frightening because of their frequency, consistency and their virulence.

The prior attacks were at least not as broad or deep as the current attacks.

In the political arena we didn't have mayors openly attacking African-Canadians like June Rowlands did not long ago when she said that Black youth committed disproportionately more crimes.  We didn't have the leader of the Liberal Party in Ontario openly saying that African-Canadians, specifically Somalians, are involved in welfare frauds.  We didn't have a federal party like the Reform Party, whose raison de etre is basically because of its anti-immigrant and conservative stand.  We didn't have an immigration critic at the federal level whose popularity is dependent on his attacking immigrants.

The Reform Party nearly became the opposition party at its first run in Federal Politics.  Can you imagine that?  We nearly had an opposition party that is accused of being openly racist.  That's new in Canada, after a long time.

You had a prominent member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, John Crosbie, openly attacking African-Canadians and women.  That was not the case in the far past.  Politicians were a little more circumspect in their attacks.

In the near future you may have a mayor of Toronto, June Rowlands, who will be supported by a police chief who may be Julian Fantino, who you know very well.  That is a formidable combination.  And I will talk more about attacks on Blacks by police in a while.  But these are just a few examples at the political level.

Regarding the law, a judge recently said -- and I quote, it is in my book -- responding to criticisms by African-Canadians when a police officer was acquitted in a shooting incident.  The judge said:

"The officer who fired the shot is extremely fortunate that the accused did not get shot.  If that had happened, no doubt, irresponsible members of the legal profession would have demanded murder charges be made."

Accompanied by such irresponsible statements such as:

"Black people are sick of being shot by police."

This is a judge now talking.  Even judges are beginning to attack African-Canadians.  It was not like this in the far past.

A judge also recently stated the following:

"Canada does not deserve such a thug."

A Judge also said in finding a Canadian woman guilty of assault that “she exhibited third world behaviour.”  What is third world behaviour? Judges are beginning to use the street language, violent street language.  They are pandering to the media.  The media and judges are in fact competing as to who can make the most violent statements that are catchy and that will be reported by the press.  And that's frightening.  It never used to be like that.  Judges reserve their most violent language on people of non-white origin.

You also now have groups of individuals going to courts when someone is going to be sentenced to impress on the judges to give those guys longer sentences.  That never used to be the case.  There used to be victim impact statements.  Now groups are actually going to the courts to impress on the judges to give longer sentences.  And the judges are beginning to pander to that.

There are four recently reported cases where this group had gone to court.  Two individuals got longer sentences than the normal range, and because of that group.  And it's not surprising that at the end of the day people who will be the victims of these groups will be African-Canadians.  There is absolutely no doubt about that.   The representatives of these groups are white Canadians,  and the judges accepting the recommendations of these groups are also white Canadians. 

You now have police officers attending immigration and parole hearings to tell the adjudicators not to release specific individuals, and the adjudicators and judges are beginning to pander to that.  That's very frightening.

The Chief Justice of Canada, at the last Canadian Bar Association Conference out West, raised the fears about the possible subversion of the administration of justice as a result of media coverage and pressure.  He does not need to go very far.  The judges are already cow-towing,  increasingly so, to the media pressure.  And the victims are always, in my submission, the African-Canadians.  Or other less fortunate individuals including poor whites.

We also have lawyers quoted by the media openly stating that the low turn out at the recent Ontario Commission to Combat Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System is attributable to the fact that there is no racism in Ontario.   And this was the chairperson of the Criminal Lawyers' Association being quoted as saying such things.  They would not even interview Charles Roach;  they would not even interview Marlene Norbese Phillip or other lawyers who are more connected to those issues.  They seek out mainstream lawyers.  So not only are judges attacking African-Canadians, even prominent lawyers are attacking African-Canadians.  These lawyers have not done any research as to why there is a low turn out, if such be the case.

You go to court as an African-Canadian lawyer -- and most of you have your own experiences in your own field.  My experience of last week is that when I ordered a transcript of a trial I did, I found out that anytime I was making submissions the judge would say "Mr. Hamalengwa is making assertions."  Whereas, whenever she referred to the crown she would say the crown is "taking the position."  I was making assertions, the crown is taking a position.  These mean different things.  The first one is negative,  the second one is positive.  Jurors pay attention to such usage of language.

One judge, in a case that was quite long and very, controversial, would whenever the crown attorney lost a motion, he would preface his remarks by saying, "despite your able arguments" Mr. so and so and so, and he would mention the name of the crown, "I have to decline your motion".  Whenever my motion was dismissed, the judge would just say "motion dismissed", and looking somewhere else with contempt in his voice.  And, you know, clients can observe this.  The language between the crown attorney and the judge is frightening.  They look, they conspire.  We see this.  And it's part of the game in these courtrooms.  And there are numerous examples.  In fact, each one of you have your own examples from your own practices.

The police.  Julian Fantino may be the next police chief.  You know what he did when he was stationed in the Jane-Finch area.  He started compiling a secret file on African-Canadians who are perceived to be a threat.  You can't even be allowed to exercise your own democratic rights in this country.  Today I read in the paper that even Susan Eng has had a secret intelligence report on her, someone who is the head of the Police Services Board.  I also read in the papers today that there is a secret intelligence report on Somalis in Canada.  Who knows how many of you are on that list.  My friend Charles Roach is already on that secret list.  And you don't know how many other lists he is on.   You can't even be allowed to exercise democratic rights in this country.

Art Lymer is constantly attacking African-Canadians.  As a matter of fact, as late as August 8th, 1994, there is a report in the Toronto Star about his recent remarks regarding Blacks.  It's constant.

Whenever I go to court involving a Nigerian, police officers come to me and say, “you should come to the police station and see the files we have on these Nigerian welfare scammers, and the insurance fraudsters.”  So they allege that Nigerians are involved in these things.  Yet, all reports indicate that everybody out there in the community, some of them are on welfare because of economic crisis, but they single out Somalis and Nigerians as being on welfare or scamming the welfare system.

Kiki Roach is going to talk about the numerous Blacks who are shot by the police.  But that is an aspect of the attacks that we have been suffering under over the years.

Regarding the media, you know Christie Blatchford of the Toronto Sun.  Her raison de etre seems to be to hunt niggers and other unfortunate beings.  That's all she does.  She has a radio show.  Most of the topics discussed there involve niggers.  Recently she stated that in reporting on a case where some people filed a complaint about a police officer, she asked the following question:

"The more interesting I think is why they come to Canada where the presumption of prejudice is nourished."

Before that she said:

"Where do they come from, these sad, obsessed people, Budria Shaheedmian, Lesley McLean."

There is one African-Canadian and the two of East-Asian orientation.  So you can't even be allowed to feel that this is your country.  They constantly ask you where you come from. You may even have been born here.

The other day she attacked Arnold Minors.  Here is the newspaper cutting.  It was because he associated with Dudley Laws.  They don't even know that their view of criminal convictions is different from our view of criminal convictions.  Arnold Minors should not associate with Dudley Laws, a member of our community, yet they are associating with people like Mario Gentile who has been convicted.  The other day when he announced his resignation a lot of people went to his side, a lot of people, mainstream people.  They don't even call him a convicted criminal at all.  But we should not associate with our own people regardless of how much they have done for the community.  And you have no forum to respond to the attacks.   And I will come to that.

They write everyday about our problems.  But we have absolutely no forum whereby we could respond to these attacks. We should have a forum where we should respond to these attacks.

The Toronto Sun used to be a peripheral tabloid.  It's no longer a peripheral tabloid.  It's a mainstream tabloid.  It's the largest circulating paper on Sundays.  And you know many people read papers on Sundays because they don't do much except read papers.  The Toronto Sun is the largest circulating paper.   And in the recent past there was a good article in the Now Magazine which indicated that the Toronto Sun is actually moving into the mainstream, it's out there, and that more people read it now than ever before.  The Globe & Mail, believe you me, maybe sidelined in the near future.

The Toronto Star, people disdain it because of its knee-deep liberalism.  You don't know whether they are coming or going.  Even some of the good reporters, that I regard as good reporters like Rosie Dimano, sometimes you are so happy with her article, and then sometimes you say, My God, what's wrong with this woman!  Wow she is very good, next day she will write something outrageous.  You have no forum where you can be consistent.  We need to create a forum where we can be consistent.

The media now attend immigration and parole hearings, to make it known to adjudicators that they are there to report.  And when the adjudicators see the media they will pander to the media.  That is an other aspect where we are under attack.  They will more likely attend hearings involving African-Canadians than other people.

One of the Logan Brothers, one of the most notorious criminal families of sometime back, was recently denied parole, precisely because a day before his parole hearing, the Scales of Justice program aired on CBC, the day before the parole hearing.  Obviously, it was not surprising that it was denied, because everybody knew what that man had done.

One time, on the very day I was going to defend -- to assist someone at a deportation hearing in Kingston, the Toronto Sun published an article with the picture of the woman in the Toronto Sun.  I think the title was "Torturer Wants Her Children Back", the very day I was trying to help her to beat the deportation.  It is not surprising that they denied that woman the right to come out.  She had very good grounds for coming out one of the Board members was carrying a copy of the Toronto Sun right into the hearing room.  Thus, we are under attack on many fronts and we need to do something about it.

Now, I propose three things that we could do.  Because, as I suggested at the beginning, each one of us, hopefully, will suggest specific programs.

The first one is, I think we should start a magazine sometime next year.  I know it is extremely difficult to start magazines now, but I think we need a forum.  This magazine will be involved in investigative and speculative journalism, that will not only be responding but will be pro-active to the attacks.  About five or six pages will be devoted to letters from the public.  Let them write what they want to write.

I have been sending a lot of letters to the Toronto Star and Globe & Mail and only one has ever been published.  So we need a forum.  Many of us need that kind of forum.  That magazine will be different.  And I suggest that if you can be a founding contributor we can discuss after today how we can start that magazine.  The name has not been chosen.  We have not done the ground work, but I think we need something that we will call our own.

Some of the newspapers we have now from the community generally are only reacting to what is going on.  Most of the time they don't even publish our articles.  We need something like McLean's Magazine, or Nairobi Law Monthly Emerge from the United States, or a similar magazine.  And I am proposing that magazine start publishing sometime next year.  Now, it may not come to fruition, but I lay it out as an idea of what we could do to respond to the attacks.

The second idea I have is that by next September 1995 I think we should start our own school, which may be called Centre for Legal Studies, where we will teach our own courses to the African-Canadians in law, journalism, private investigations, social science, so that we can staff our own institutions with the people we have trained.  It is also an employment creation venture.  And it would also be helping people from colleges and high schools to do something that will assist their community.  Right now we don't have our own school where we can train our own intelligentsia.  We need our own organic intellectuals.  We will be looking at various proposals, and we will try to get funding from different bodies.  And we can rent a school in the evenings, on weekends.  We will be giving certificates.

We need to position ourselves for the 21st Century.  We need to have our own expert witnesses in the courts to talk about the racial discrimination that we suffer.  Right now we have no African-Canadians who are experts, who can be qualified as experts to talk about racial discrimination in the courts.

We don't have among racial minorities private investigators who we can send around to dig up information that will help our community.

We need more African-Canadian journalists whom we can employ in this very magazine that we have proposed.  As you know, most of the African-Canadian journalists now in the mainstream media started out at Contrast magazine when it existed.  And the media has grabbed some of them.  But some of them out there have not yet been grabbed.

I think this school I am proposing would do, in my view, a good job in training our own intelligentsia, in the law, journalism and economic and social sciences.

The third proposal is that we should start our own centre for collecting data, documents etc on the experiences we suffer.

If you have been attending the hearing of the Commission on Systemic Racism, someone used to raise the question that what you are talking about are merely anecdotes.  When you are talking about your experiences it is an anecdote, it is not evidence.  So we need to collect data.  We need to have this data bank whereby anyone who alleges discrimination may come and do research in that office and find out a pattern.  And once we have a pattern we can present these patterns to the court, so that our experiences are not aberrations, they are not regarded as isolated experiences, but their general experiences.  And we can co-opt this data from time to time to the benefit of the community.

The last proposal, which really is not a proposal but is already existing out there.  There are some people who have formed the Caribbean-African Chamber of Commerce.  There used to be a previous one but it has died out.  But one has just been revived.  This Caribbean-African Chamber of Commerce, should be supported.  It will be helping Africans in accessing loans, funds to start their own businesses and so on.  It will be providing information on how to get contracts from the government, how to network and so on and so forth, because you need economic power for political influence.  No economic power, no political influence;  no political power, no legal influence.  We need to stand on our own feet economically.  We need no longer be dependent on the handouts from the government.  We can support ourselves.