Urban African Canadians: A Qualitative Study of Serious Legal Problems in Quebec

Impacts and Conclusion

The legal problems that the participants experienced, and their impacts, varied. In most instances, however, the effects have been significant and lasting in mental and physical health, financial cost, family stress and separation, loss of valuable time, and a distrust of both the legal system and the police. Thomas is currently appealing the decision with another lawyer, but his first experience with the legal system in Canada was disappointing. The ongoing process has been taxing, both emotionally and financially, and it has negatively affected his family, work, his ability to further his education, his mental health, and his sense of hope for a future beyond his current troubles. Nonetheless, he is optimistic that his status will change.

Nina eventually received what she describes as a small settlement, but she spent about $50,000 on legal and psychological support, and the ordeal has had a significant effect on her mental and physical health.

Donald was terminated when he failed to comply with a demand to stop discussing religion in the workplace. His severance payment could not replace his salary and he could not maintain his mortgage. He lost his house, and the issue caused a rupture in his family, leading to a separation from his wife and child. Although Donald believes that race was a factor in his case, he emphasizes that the discrimination he faced was based on his religious beliefs.

Although there were no financial costs associated with Salif’s medical-legal issues, the entire process cost him in other ways, delaying his studies, not being able to visit his family in Guinea, and his health. Given his marginal immigration status as a refugee claimant in relation to the healthcare system, he was not permitted to have the urgent foot surgery. He now has a permanent disability. Kathleen has filed a formal complaint with the provincial government about her dismissal, but she acknowledges that she feels discouraged and powerless and has lost confidence in the legal system (she has turned to social media for support instead).

For Oliver, the impact of his legal problems directly affected his sense of himself and his place in society. In his words, “There’s a huge impact on my self-worth. As a functioning member of society, I’ve doubted my place and my belonging. I felt disenfranchised, I felt ostracized, I felt marginalized.”

Toussaint resigned from his job and he has been unemployed for several months. He had a similar experience a few years before, for which he sought legal advice from a lawyer. However, the support that he received was unsatisfactory, largely because the lawyer could not relate to his experience because he was a member of Quebec’s cultural majority. This experience with the legal system discouraged him from pursuing the more recent incident in court because, based on prior experience, he did not believe a white lawyer could relate to his experience.

Harriot’s experiences of being pulled over by the police for “driving while Black,” and her deep sense of fear that she might be physically harmed, or even shot by the police, reveals a deep and palpable sense of dread and vulnerability in relation to the police. This is a familiar phenomenon that has deep historical roots in Canada (Austin 2013, 159–61), but as Robin Maynard (2017, 116) writes, although this phenomenon has been imagined as a problem associated with Black males, “the law enforcement violence experienced by Black women remains largely unseen, a part of a larger, untapped archive of the institutional denigration of Black women’s lives.”

In each instance, Harriot politely complied with the officers and then later contested her ticket in court, but during the interview, her fear of the police was palpable – fear that a seemingly routine traffic stop might result in her death. In relation to her nephew who had been murdered over 20 years ago, she believes that the police have not taken the necessary steps to find the perpetrator, and that if he were White, the police would have made more of a concerted effort to find his killer and to provide closure for the family.

Although he did not elaborate, Fred mentioned his mistrust of lawyers, who have taken advantage of him in the past. For him, filing a grievance or engaging a lawyer to obtain justice is ineffective because most people cannot afford legal help, or feel too defeated to seek legal help, and because the legal system generally works against them. He continues to fight, but he is resigned to the reality that:

No matter what the grievances are … 97.7% of grievances that are filed by inmates… are denied” and that challenging the legal system is “like David going up against Goliath, but without a stone … you’re going up against this gigantic system with all these tentacles and you really cannot defend yourself because they have arbitrary power over you.

Fred’s remarks speak to the sense of resignation and distrust that many of the participants expressed: the sense that the cards are stacked against them and that the legal system’s effectiveness, cost, and care works against their interests.

Participants described inadequate legal support and representation, a lack of trust in the legal system, and a sense that it cannot work for them or that it is financially, and even culturally, inaccessible. In public life and in prison, the inaccessibility of programs, services, and support in English also serves as a barrier to legal justice. In many instances, the intersection of race, class, gender, and language discrimination have served as major obstacles to receiving adequate, if any, legal advice and representation.

As we have seen, although most of the participants attributed their legal problems to some form of racial discrimination, in some instances only immigration status or language were emphasized. Gender discrimination was not mentioned as a significant issue, even when it may have been a factor. However, given the relatively small number of participants, this absence is clearly not representative of the entire Black population as a whole on this issue.

Despite the significant legal problems that they have experienced, participants demonstrated resilience and fortitude in the face of official intransigence. Whether in relation to the police, immigration, or legal problems related to incarceration, language discrimination, or work-related injuries and health issues, most participants expressed their desire and will to continue to fight for justice, even when the fight took a toll on their well-being. This suggests that, while some, understandably, chose not to pursue their issue through the formal legal system, for many of them the cost involved in not fighting for justice, in one form or another, was too high a cost to pay. This was the case even when they lacked confidence in the legal system and believed that it did not represent their interests.