How the face of a mostly white Montreal suburb changed, and why Black residents still don’t feel welcome | CBC News

Repentigny’s quiet, pedestrian-friendly streets lined with large homes, driveways and lush, green grass project a peaceful lifestyle. 

But Guillaume and many other Black people who live in the suburb of more than 84,000 people located just east of Montreal say they’re not comfortable there.

A big part of that discomfort is due to the community’s strained relationship with Repentigny police, which, earlier this month, hit a new low.

On Aug 1, police responded to a 911 call about a man in distress who was holding a knife. 

Marie-Mireille Bence, a Haitian Quebecer, is the one who placed that call because she was worried her son would hurt himself. She was hoping police would be able to get him to a hospital. 

Instead, the intervention ended with officers shooting Jean René Junior Olivier three times in the stomach, and the province’s police watchdog leading an investigation into the 37-year-old Black man’s death.

Repentigny police say it was the first time in the city’s history that one of their officers shot a resident. 

Bence says her son no longer had the knife in his hand when he was shot, and she believes he was killed because of the anti-Black racism that exists within the local police force.

The shooting has many Black residents once again wondering if they will ever be treated fairly and respectfully in the majority-white city — a feeling that’s lingered for years, even as the number of Black people in Repentigny has skyrocketed in recent decades.

‘They don’t want to see us’

According to census data, only about 500 Black people lived in Repentigny in 2001. 

According to the most recent census in 2016, that number has jumped to more than 5,800 — an increase of more than 1,000 per cent, mostly spearheaded by Haitian Quebecers.

The data also show that outside of white, French-speaking Quebecers, the Haitian community is by far the second largest cultural group in the city.

Serge Damord is among the senior members of that community. He moved his family to Repentigny nearly 20 years ago.

He says it was a chance for him to live in a quieter area and in the type of quality home that would be much more expensive on the island of Montreal.

However, Damord, who is retired, says his family’s time in Repentigny has been marred by a series of unpleasant run-ins with local police.

He says a few years ago, his son was pulled over seven times in one week. 

His son had been working at a local car dealership, so it was normal for him to be driving around in one type of luxury car one day, and another the next. 

“I never saw [an officer] grab any other people, only the Black community. The African people, the Haitian people, they always grab them. I don’t know why,” Damord said.

Pierre Richard Thomas, a local resident who organized a sit-in protest at city hall a few days after Olivier’s death, moved to Repentigny six years ago, for reasons that are identical to Damord’s. 

He said he believes the rapid growth of Repentigny’s Black population has led to resentment within police and among some white neighbours.

“They don’t want to see us,” Thomas said. “If you listen to them talk among themselves in grocery stores, it’s as if they think we’re invading them.”

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‘The face of Repentigny has changed’

Since 2017, nine complaints with the province’s human rights commission have been filed against Repentigny police. 

The commission has ruled against the police force on four occasions.

Thomas says racial profiling in the city didn’t start four years ago. He says more cases are being reported because as the city’s Black population grows, so does the willingness to unite and speak up.

“The face of Repentigny has changed,” Thomas said.

 

“As soon as we started talking with people in our community, we quickly realized that [racial profiling] was widespread. From that point on, we started organizing ourselves in order to denounce it.”

In the face of mounting criticism, Repentigny’s longtime mayor, Chantal Deschamps, has vowed to do what is necessary to eradicate racial profiling in her city.

The day after Olivier’s killing, police Chief Helen Dion acknowledged that work needed to be done to mend the police force’s relationship with the Black community.

“The sensitivity is perhaps not as present as we’d like it to be,” Dion said.

Despite that acknowledgement, many residents remain skeptical. 

Considering how much more diverse Repentigny has become in the 20-plus years he’s lived there, Guillaume said he doesn’t understand why change hasn’t already happened.

“It should be known to everyone that we’re here now,” he said. “We’re not here to threaten you, we’re not here to hurt you…. We’re just your friendly neighbours.”

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.