HALIFAX The City of Halifax will pay damages and provide a written apology after a human rights board determined a Black citizen faced discrimination by Halifax police when he was ticketed for jaywalking. Jacques Dube, the chief administrative officer, said Thursday in a release the municipality accepts the decision in favour of Gyasi Symonds following the 2017 incident. The city also says the police officers involved in the matter will undergo Journey to Change training, a newly created program the Halifax Regional Police developed in consultation with the African Nova Scotian community. Board chairman Benjamin Perryman released a decision last week concluding race was a factor in the police officers decision to target Symonds for surveillance and investigation.
Human Rights Board Orders Halifax Police to Pay Black Man $15K After Following Him Into Work Building to Issue Jaywalking Ticket
An independent human rights board recently found that a Black Canadian man was racially profiled in 2017 when he was first detained on the street by two officers, allowed to go, and minutes later followed back to his office to confront him again and issue him a ticket for jaywalking. The board ordered the Halifax Regional Police to pay the Black man, Gyasi Symonds, more than $15,000 and formally apologize, but Symonds says the cops are getting off with “a slap on the wrist.”
Halifax man who won human rights case against police says the officers got off easy
Halifax s Gyasi Symonds says he s glad he won his human rights complaint against the Halifax Regional Police but he says the two officers who racially discriminated against him got off with a slap on the wrist.
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Posted: May 06, 2021 5:18 PM ET | Last Updated: May 6
Gyasi Symonds has won his human rights complaint against Halifax Regional Police and the Halifax Regional Municipality after 2 police officers followed him to his downtown office building in 2017 and issued a ticket for jaywalking. (Submitted by Gyasi Symonds )
NEWS RELEASE
An independent human rights board of inquiry has found that a Halifax man was discriminated against by police when ticketed for jaywalking.
Board chair Benjamin Perryman released his decision today, May 5. In it, he describes the interactions between Gyasi Symonds and two Halifax Regional Police officers, finding that Mr. Symonds was discriminated against on the basis of his race and/or colour.
Mr. Perryman found that Const. Paul Cadieux and Const. Steve Logan targeted Mr. Symonds on the morning of Jan. 24, 2017, because he is Black. Mr. Perryman describes two separate interactions between police and Mr. Symonds that were initiated when Mr. Symonds was observed jaywalking on Gottingen Street in Halifax. During the first interaction, police talked to Mr. Symonds about why people should not jaywalk and he was free to go. In the second interaction, he was confronted at his nearby workplace and ticketed.