The Black Studies Institute plans to file official complaints against MP Larry Brock
During an examination of Canada’s bail system by a federal committee, Conservative MP Larry Brock asked Danardo Jones, an assistant law professor at the University of Windsor, questions that some people are calling racist.
Jones spoke in front of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights last week. He said that Canada’s justice system was unfair to people of color and those on the outside.
Jones said that profiling based on race by police leads to too many Black and Indigenous people being locked up. Jones said that the fact that bail is based on how credible and trustworthy someone is makes it unfair for people of color.
“Some people are thought to be more credible and trustworthy because of their race,” Jones said. “There is a big problem with how we understand risk and how we read risk on different bodies.”
He said that this is a time when being sensitive to and aware of race is important.
During the March 8 hearing, Conservative MP Larry Brock, who used to be a crown attorney, asked, “Where do you get this information?” “I find it offensive that you’re using such a broad brush to say that Black and Indigenous people don’t get a fair shake in our bail system because of the crown system and the judicial system.”
Brock also said that Jones’s seven years as a criminal defense attorney were “a small amount of time” that Jones had actually practiced law.
Jones said that he did not expect to be cross-examined in this way or to have his credentials questioned when he was invited to be on the panel.
He said that he was in a “very uncomfortable situation.”
Watch how MP Larry Brock and law professor Danardo Jones talk to each other:
Now, Brock has gotten a letter from the head of the Black Studies Institute at the University of Windsor. In the letter, the head of the Black Studies Institute explains how the interaction was racist.
Natalie Delia Deckard, the founder of the Black Studies Institute, said, “By treating professor Jones like an imposter, pretender, and someone not worthy of civility, you acted out all of the anti-Black stereotypes that we have tried to fight against.”
CBC has tried to get an interview with Brock, but he hasn’t answered.
Racialized Academics & Advocates Centering Equity and Solidarity (RAACES) at the University of Windsor has also sent a letter to the president, chancellor, and board of the school asking them to take action.
They, too, say that Jones is “a target of racism” because of this, and they want the university to stand up for him.
RAACES wants the University of Windsor to support Jones in a public statement and ask Brock to apologize, among other things.
Jones doesn’t want his conversation with Brock to take away from the reason he went to Ottawa: problems with Canada’s bail system that affect Black and Indigenous people in particular.
“It’s not a problem that I brought it up. As I said, all of us have easy access to this evidence, which has been collected over the last 30 years. The highest court in our country has agreed with this and told us over and over and over again that we need to deal with this problem “said Jones.
“If we act like this isn’t a problem, we have a lot of work to do,” he said.
Jones said that because the exchange got so much attention on social media, people have reached out to say that it made them think about issues of justice inequity.
Jones said, “I’ve talked to a lot of people who probably never thought much about criminal justice reform, but now they’re talking about it.”
The Black Studies Institute said it also plans to file complaints against Brock with the Law Society of Ontario and the Parliamentary Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.