Keyword Ethnic Profiling

We think we know what ethnic profiling is, but what does it feel like? Dutch citizens report on at times bizarre and disconcerting experiences with police checks, where their skin colour routinely makes them suspicious. For years, the police has been aiming to proactively execute security checks in order to arrest more riff-raff. But practise shows that Dutch people with a migration background are regularly stopped without any suspicion of criminal offences. Poignantly, the teacher, the soldier, the lawyer, the rapper, the fellow police officer and other coloured Dutchmen talk about helplessness, frustration, humiliation, alienation, anger and what it feels like to be a suspect from the start. Wry, but insightful indictment of ethnic profiling.

Over six episodes, Maisonneuve looks at the repercussions flowing from the arrest of 11 students at Montreal’s Collège de Maisonneuve as they prepared to join the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria. From the initial shock to a gradual opening for dialogue, the series follows the paths of six exceptional young people who share their points of view. Through their eyes, Maisonneuve highlights both the importance and the fragility of living together in harmony in Quebec.