Parliamentary Protective Service commits to anti-racism training

The Parliamentary Protective Service (PPS) has agreed to equity and anti-racism training for its staff after a coalition of black Nova Scotians reported being racially profiled during a recent visit to Parliament Hill, says a Nova Scotia senator.

Sen. Wanda Thomas Bernard, a longtime social justice advocate, said her office complained to the PPS on behalf of the coalition, which was invited to Ottawa for a series of meetings with federal cabinet ministers on Feb. 4. The visit was to coincide with Black History Month.

The visitors said a government employee and a PPS officer referred to them as "dark-skinned" before they were asked to leave the parliamentary cafeteria, even though they had the required passes to be in that area.

"They [PPS] determined that the officer involved ... he's Francophone and had some discomfort around the term 'black' because that term means something different in the French language," Bernard said in an interview.

"So, his use of language was identified as the area of concern, and they've taken some steps to address that with him.

"However, they've also made a commitment to work specifically with my office in terms of looking at their overall training around equity and diversity and anti-racism issues."

The PPS has completed its investigation into the complaint and apologized for the incident. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also apologized to members of the coalition during a private meeting Thursday at the Black Cultural Centre in Cherry Brook, N.S., which Bernard also attended. Trudeau acknowledged that anti-black racism remains a problem across Canada and that more needs to be done to address it.

There are discussions about making the PPS training an annual event, which Bernard said would be a good step toward addressing what she called a "systemic" issue.

"This is not the first time there's been incident of racial profiling on Parliament Hill," she said.

"Several of us have spoken out about incidents of racial profiling on Parliament Hill. I've had other visitors — family members even — who've come to the Hill and had experiences."

Bernard said the incident on Feb. 4 started when an MP's staff member took a photo of the group on a phone, sent it to security and asked for the group to be removed from the cafeteria, alleging they were being noisy and disruptive.

"Those young people were told to wait in the cafeteria for the next series of meetings that they were having with MPs," Bernard said.

"The fact that an MP's staff would take a photo to lodge a complaint to have these young people removed from that space and to not see anything wrong with that, that's hugely, hugely problematic."

Bernard said she's pleased the PPS has committed to work with her office to address issues of unconscious bias, systemic discrimination and racial profiling.

"Every Canadian who comes to visit us on the Hill who has the appropriate visitors passes ... has the right, the absolute right to be there, has the right to be treated with dignity and respect, and has the right to feel that they are welcomed there and that they actually belong there," she said.