Montreal's police service is set to unveil a policy on street checks today, a practice that is nothing short of controversial. A street check is an interaction between police and civilians, outside a criminal context, that allows for the collection of identifying information. There is precedent for a ban, however — Nova Scotia did so last year after a review found street checks are not reasonably necessary for police to execute their duties. In Ontario, a Court of Appeal justice who reviewed that province's policy on street checks in 2017 determined the practice should be sharply curtailed and suggested certain criteria be tightened. The rules around street checks are also coming out in the midst of a national conversation around systemic racism in policing and calls to defund police, sparked by the highly publicized deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both killed by police.

Source: CBC News July 08, 2020 07:52 UTC