Racial profiling has long been recognized as a pervasive problem among First Nations people in Canada. A 2003 report by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, titled "The Impact of Racial Profiling on the Aboriginal Community," provides extensive documentation of First Nations people’s experience with racial profiling, as well as their disproportionate representation in Canada’s criminal justice system. Among the report’s more startling findings are that self-identified aborigines make up 2.8 percent of the nation’s population, but account for nearly 17 percent of the federal offender population. Native adults are incarcerated at more than six times the national rate.
But now the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health in Vanier, Ottawa, has found a creative way to address the problem. In late February, the center began producing and distributing wallet-sized cards to educate First Nations peoples about their rights with respect to police treatment. Due to high demand, all 600 of the original cards had been distributed in less than two weeks. "It amazed me how much stir this caused," said Dan Printup, the case manager for the center’s Homelessness Program, said in a recent phone interview. "[Television stations], universities, liberty groups, everyone’s been contacting us. These cards are spreading across Canada like wildfire," Printup said. Printup also told Cultural Survival that the cards seem to be working, with First Nations people producing the card upon being stopped by the police and asking to know why they were being stopped. "There weren’t ever legitimate reasons," Printup said, "and the police let them let go without further questioning."
An excerpt from the Wabano Centre’s card reads:
Officer, if I am under arrest or being detained please tell me so.
If I am free to go please tell me so.
If I am not free to go please tell me why.
I wish to exercise all my legal rights including my right to silence and my right to speak to a lawyer before I say anything to you.
I do not consent to being searched.
I wish to be released without delay.
Please do not ask me questions because I will not willingly talk to you until I speak to a lawyer.
Thank you for respecting my rights.
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