I live in NDG and I have seen many persons jay walk and nothing happened to them. In fact I have done it myself on occasions. It is just another example of Quebec becoming increasingly intolerent of minorities.

I'm a visible minority, as they say, and just last Tuesday (election night) at about 8:30 my son and I (female) walked to the store in The Point neighbourhood and saw a policeman slow down to a stop as we were walking. Then, on our way back halfway, after having picked up my box (approx 65cm X 45cm) from the store's Post office, we saw saw the same policeman again but this time he slowed down to brusquely ask my 16 y.o. son a question. He asked the question twice in french to which both times my son replied "What?" as the policeman spoke too fast for him to understand. He then asked in English, "What's in the box?", with the same demeanour that implied we were the criminals, of course.

I was offended and surprised that he had the nerve to stop us to ask that question, not to mention he basically kept his eye on us as we walked to AND fro in the rain. Neither my son or I have ever committed or been convicted of any crime. I quizzically answered "It's my stuff..from the store". He eyed us and the box a few seconds more and left without even as much as a nod or an apology. This was not the first time the police have stopped me. The other time was a long time ago when I was with a group of friends just talking on St. Catherine street like everyone else was doing but the policemen singled us out to move back and no one else around us. I asked him why just us and not the others too to which he unkindly said just move back, as he reached out to move us back.

What's interesting is as my son and I were on our way to the store last Tuesday, he basically told me not to slow down or look at the policeman because he didn't trust that the policeman who slowed down would think were up to no good and that he might want to question us. I basically told him the policeman has no reason to think we're up to no good so there's no need to worry. Boy was I wrong.

I am surprised that anybody who lives in montreal is surprised at this event. The same incident occured to my bf in 2010, where he ALONE was arrested by EIGHT officers for jaywalking. Yes. ARRESTED for JAYWALKING. And when we questioned the police as to why he was targetted while so many other people were jaywalking at that exact moment (of diverse ethnicities, ages and genders), we were told that the law is the law, but the police can choose to enforce it or not whenever they so choose. All officers were from Station 11 in NDG and according to CRAAR, this particular station has been involved in numerous cases involving racial profiling that year, and as an NDG resident, I highly doubt that has changed or decreased since then.