Obscurantism in Action: How the Ontario Human Rights Commission Frames Racial Profiling‪.‬

ABSTRACT/RESUME The phenomenon of racial profiling in Ontario has long been acknowledged by members of racialized communities, progressive activists, and others--but official acknowledgment was always withheld. This changed in late 2003 when the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) produced a report stating in no uncertain terms that the practice of racial profiling is an extant reality. Notwithstanding the virtues of this departure from past patterns of official denial, a critical reading of the OHRC report reveals key areas in which the motivations, scope, and effects of profiling are fundamentally misunderstood. More specifically, the report frames racial profiling as (1) security-centred, (2) ubiquitous, and (3) dysfunctional. This article critically interrogates these three frameworks, and in the process, elucidates the limitations of state-driven "anti-racism" initiatives in Canada.