They want us to what? Put our race on our driving licences?.I don’t know what that’s supposed to accomplish, but count me out. This would be an abuse of authority and all of us — people of colour especially — will suffer the consequences. Forget it..This violates my autonomy and my integrity..I will not comply..All this comes out of a request to the Alberta government from the Edmonton Police Commission. The EPC wants to see race identified on our Alberta driving licenses..Now, it’s not they don’t have a good reason. Faced with community complaints of racial profiling by the city’s police force, the EPC wants to gather data on the true nature and extent of their interactions with visible minority Canadians. I understand that..Nevertheless, if the proposal is approved, it could cause irreparable harm. Experience elsewhere has proven merely gathering numbers and spitting them out can lead to targeted oppression, increased community polarization, and suspicion and fear of police..Justified or not, by promoting a race-based caste system, it could well worsen the very condition it is intended to improve. The goal of the EPC and Statistics Canada must be more sophisticated than that..Gathering crime stats based on race certainly hasn't worked in other multi-racial environments. The Toronto Police Service, for example, has a lot of race-based data, yet their data collection has not improved outcomes for the city’s minorities..As in other multiracial societies such as the US, the gathering and use of race-based data may be weaponized to argue the higher rates of arrest and incarceration of black people 'proved' they're naturally more violent. The collection of crime data without accounting for the underlying circumstances of black people also justified the earlier Jim Crow laws and later brutal policing methods as part of the “war on drugs.”.The result today is a criminal justice system that focuses on communities of colour and too often inflicts more harm than it solves..Jabril Ibrahim, the president of the Somali Canadian Cultural Society of Edmonton, identified the problem clearly. He told The Western Standard: "The black community's highest priority is not on whether our ethnic origins identify us, but on fixing an outdated institutions that over-polices us. Moreover, that cannot be done by introducing a policy that would worsen racial profiling and further victimize already marginalized groups.".The goal should be to coordinate with community leaders like Jabril Ibrahim to address the particular problems each community may have with the criminal justice system and to design community-specific solutions..Identity politics has reached a new peak in Alberta and is pushing our individual sovereignty and personal integrity to a precipice. Collectively it's our future stake.. Jodi Calahoo StonehouseJodi Calahoo .Police Chief Dale McFee, in a tone-deaf statement to CBC, voiced his support for this new system of racial identification — I would say akin to a form of apartheid — saying "people are going to get it wrong a lot of the times because if you just say, ‘black Canadian, black African Canadian’ that does not divide Somali with relation to everything else.".McFee has failed to understand that black Edmontonians and other minority groups whose communities are disproportionately over-policed and have a tumultuous relationship with law enforcement are less concerned about being identified as "black, or Somali" and more about what this policy would entail for them if mandated..Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse, a Cree and Mohawk from Michel First Nations, favours this proposed apartheid legislation and argues race cards for all is a step towards equity for indigenous people. As indigenous people carry “status” cards that identify race, all persons should carry race-identity cards. This argument is a false equivalency. Indigenous people are not required to carry race cards. How does creating race cards for everyone help the indigenous community?.We must understand forcing race cards on all Albertans is not a step towards equity for indigenous people — and centring race in police and civilian interactions is an outdated and dangerous idea..Whatever the good intentions might be — and there can be some — the problem with any government body collecting race-based data is it's a double-edged sword; as our own human history has proven, it can be used to revive the scientifically discredited idea of biological "races" and reinforce old stereotypes that connect race and crime..The EPC and Statistics Canada should pause and consider what legislating a deliberate policy emphasizing race in police interaction would mean for Albertans and especially for marginalized communities..I say scrap the race cards before people even start lining up for their pictures. If the EPC is genuinely concerned about the unjust treatment and over-representation of people of colour — including indigenous people — in the criminal justice system, then the EPC, Statistics Canada and the Edmonton police need to come up with a better idea..To start, as argued, they should work with leaders in communities of colour to come up with mutually agreeable solutions..As Ibrahim said, "... with due respect, Jodi Calahoo does not speak for racialized communities [and] should not be making decisions for other people regarding equity and system change.".People should not be racially classified. We are all one race, the human race..I cannot, therefore, support the proposal.
