When the head of a major police service claims he has experienced racial profiling from both sides, people pay attention. It is a bold statement. It hits a nerve. It forces a messy conversation out into the open. Fady Dagher, the chief of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), made headlines by stating he has felt targeted because of his background by officers, and conversely, judged or profiled by citizens based on his uniform.
Let's look at what this actually means. Is it a valid perspective from a leader trying to bridge a massive societal gap, or is it a false equivalence that minimizes systemic harm? You need to understand the context to judge fairly.
The Reality of Leadership in Modern Policing
Police leadership is brutal right now. Chiefs walk a tightrope between an increasingly frustrated public and rank-and-file officers who feel entirely unsupported. Dagher took the helm in Montreal with a reputation for community policing. He previously led the police force in Longueuil, a suburb south of Montreal, where he pushed hard for social workers to respond alongside cops to mental health calls.
When Dagher spoke about facing profiling himself, he described two distinct experiences. First, he talked about encountering prejudice from within or outside law enforcement structures due to his ethnicity or background. Second, he pointed to the immediate hostility he faces the moment he puts on a uniform. People look at the badge and make assumptions before he even speaks a word.
This dual reality forms the core of his argument. But critics argue there is a fundamental flaw here. Individual prejudice and systemic racial profiling are not the same thing.
Systemic Bias Versus Individual Prejudice
Let's get clear on definitions because confusion here ruins the debate.
Systemic racial profiling involves historical, institutional patterns where marginalized groups face disproportionate stops, searches, and violence from state authorities. Data backs this up. In Montreal, independent reports commissioned over the years have repeatedly shown that Black, Indigenous, and Arab residents face disproportionately higher rates of street checks by police officers.
A civilian cannot structurally oppress a police chief. A citizen rolling their eyes at a man in uniform is being rude or prejudiced. A police officer stopping a Black teenager without reasonable cause exercises state power that can derail a life. Conflating these two dynamics frustrates community advocates who have spent decades fighting for structural reform.
Why Dagher Made These Remarks
Dagher is trying a high-risk communication strategy. By personalizing the conversation, he attempts to humanize both sides of a deeply polarized issue. He wants officers to understand what it feels like to be prejudged. At the same time, he wants the public to see the human being underneath the heavy tactical gear and the badge.
Is it working? Honestly, reactions remain split right down the middle.
Police unions often defend officers who feel unfairly painted with a broad brush. They point out that recruitment is down, morale is scraping the bottom, and every officer carries immense daily risk. On the other side, civil liberties groups and community organizers argue that a police chief should focus entirely on fixing institutional biases within his own ranks rather than drawing parallels to anti-police sentiment.
What the Data Tells Us
Let's look at the numbers because opinions are cheap, but data tells the real story.
Independent studies on Montreal policing show persistent disparities. For instance, a landmark independent report released a few years ago revealed that Indigenous people in Montreal were nearly 4.5 times more likely to be stopped by police than white people. Black people were more than 4 times more likely to be stopped. Middle Eastern individuals faced significantly higher rates as well.
These aren't random guesses. These are hard statistical findings from researchers analyzing hundreds of thousands of police intervention reports.
When a police chief equates the sting of being judged for wearing a badge with the historical and statistical reality of being targeted for the color of your skin, the math simply does not align. That is why the backlash was swift and fierce.
Moving Past the Rhetoric
If you want to understand how policing is changing in Canada's second-largest city, you have to look past the soundbites. Montreal is experimenting with new models. They are trying to separate mental health crises from armed police responses. They are testing specialized intervention teams.
Dagher knows his mandate relies on rebuilding trust. Trust is fragile. It takes years to build and seconds to shatter. Telling a community that feels over-policed that the chief "knows what it's like" because people dislike his uniform risks alienating the very people he needs to reach.
Leadership requires accountability. It requires listening when marginalized communities say the system is broken. It also requires protecting officers who walk dangerous streets every night. Balancing those two truths is nearly impossible.
Look at the facts. Read the independent reports on street checks. Listen to the lived experiences of citizens who have been stopped for no reason. Keep the pressure on institutions to reform, and hold leaders like Dagher accountable to the data, not just the rhetoric.
