Fondé en 1983 --Unis pour la diversité et l'égalité raciale

CRARR WELCOMES PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. BLACK CHIEFS OF POLICE ORGANIZATION AT ROUND-TABLE ON POLICE DIVERSITY TRAINING


MONTREAL, March 17, 2006 - To celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (March 21), CRARR will host next Tuesday a round-table event on diversity competency development for public and private security services at the Holiday Inn Select, 99 Viger Avenue West, Montreal.

Funded by the Multiculturalism Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the round-table aims to promote diversity and anti-discrimination training and examine training needs in order to enable officers and managers to achieve bias-free and effective law enforcement. It will run from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm and include a luncheon featuring a keynote speech by Chief Richard Pennington, President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE). Chief Pennington, also Chief of Police of Atlanta, will visit Ottawa and Montreal and will be accompanied by NOBLE’s past President, Mr. Clarence Edward, a former executive with the U.S. federal civil service.

During lunch, CRARR will also launch a flyer on hate crimes, produced with financial assistance from the Canadian Jewish Congress and others.

Along with Chief Pennington, the round-table will feature presentations by Deputy Chief Keith Forde, Toronto Police Service (Toronto’s first Black Deputy Chief); Sylvio Gravel, Staff Sergeant, Ottawa Police Service; Serge Meloche, Director of Police, Canadian National; Pierre Paquet, Director of Strategy and Program Development, Canada Border Services Agency; and Hoanh Van Dam, Coordinator of Employment Equity, Human Rights and Workplace Quality, Montreal Police Service, that will address issues related to employment equity and competency development.

Other experts include Louise Brunelle, Coordinator of Sectoral Training, Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport; Saleha Khan, Instructor, Race Relations and Adult Education Unit, Ontario Police College; Sylvie Lussier, Directrice, Programme des techniques policières, Cegep Maisonneuve; Marc Paré, Professional Development Advisor, École nationale de police du Québec; Shirley Sarna, Cooperation and Education Officer, Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission; and Cathy Sidorenko, Dean, Police Technology Program, John Abbott College.

Senator Mobina Jaffer (Liberal-BC) will also participate in the discussion. Senator Jaffer has played a leading role in the review of the anti-terrorism legislation and is particularly interested in culturally-sensitive law enforcement.

Presently, police training institutions, police services and security services of public transit corporations in Quebec do not provide training on diversity. The Quebec Department of Public Security has declined CRARR’s invitation to participate in the round-table’s program.