Researchers are concerned about the meteoric rise in fines for people experiencing homelessness over the past two decades.
The Profiling Observatory, which brings together researchers from the Universities of Montreal, Sherbrooke and Ottawa, took a closer look at the number of criminal complaints filed against people experiencing homelessness from 2013 to 2022.
Between 2000 and 2022, at least 16,368 violations were reported to people who provided the address of a roaming organization in Quebec City, according to the report prepared by the Observatory following its analysis.
The report, titled “The Judicialization of Homelessness in Quebec: Alarming Findings,” was released Thursday.
Of the total criminal reports filed in 22 years, 12,663 crimes were filed between 2013 and 2022, which corresponds to 77% of all reports. During those same years, people experiencing homelessness accumulated $3,344,492 in debts to Quebec Municipal Court. This amount only includes the fines and preliminary costs of the findings examined, so in reality these debts could be significantly higher.
Most traffic tickets are generally issued to men, but in Quebec, compared to other cities, women are prosecuted more often and for different reasons than men. One of the most common crimes is sleeping in the park.
“To sleep in a park […] These are really findings that seem worrying to us. […]“We know that there are few resources for women, that they have no space and that women who cannot use these resources certainly feel that sleeping in a park can be more protective,” explains Céline Bellot, Director of the Profiling Observatory.
Céline Bellot, Director of the Profiling Observatory. Decency
More than half a million salary
We can also read that researchers estimate that between 2013 and 2022, the city of Quebec paid more than half a million dollars in salaries to police officers to issue tickets to homeless people.
Additionally, 15% of all reports of municipal code violations in 2021 went to people experiencing homelessness, the report shows.
The observation concludes several recommendations, such as ending social profiling, strengthening social and community responses and ensuring a coherent, lawful judicial response.
Quebec Mayor Bruno Marchand was asked to respond to the report and said he was concerned about the findings.
“It is certain that we have an obligation to review our practices and [demander] He mentioned what we can do differently. I’ll work with the legal department to see what they can do differently.”
He assured that the police would not be given oppressive instructions and that he did not want people experiencing homelessness to be subjected to excessive judicial treatment.
- In collaboration with Stéphanie Martin
Number of criminal complaints against homeless people from 2020 to 2022
- 2000:71
- 2010: 348
- 2016: 1077
- 2019: 1867
- 2020: 2,338
- 2021: 1577
- 2022: 681
- Total: 16,368
Source: The Profiling Observatory
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