Review board hears appeal of Dartmouth woman alleging racial profiling by police

The Nova Scotia Police Review Board has begun hearing the appeal of a Dartmouth woman who alleges she was racially profiled by Halifax police last year when she was pulled over and arrested.

The results of a 2020 internal investigation found police did not act improperly in the case of Kayla Borden.

Borden, who is Black, told the board Monday she was driving to her home from Bedford around 1 a.m. AT on July 28, 2020, when a police vehicle pulled up beside her near the intersection of Seapoint and Windmill roads in Dartmouth.

The local musician and music promoter said she was surrounded by five or six police cruisers and told to put her hands on the steering wheel. Borden said she was then ordered out of her vehicle, told she was under arrest, handcuffed, and put in the back seat of her own car.

Eventually, Borden said an officer asked her what kind of car she was driving, and she replied it was a Dodge Avenger.

She said the officer told her they had been pursuing a white man in a Toyota during a high-speed chase. 

Borden was told she was no longer under arrest, though police still took her information, including her licence and registration, she said.

The incident left her "angry, humiliated and terrified," Borden told the review board while a crowd of her supporters gathered outside.

Nasha Nijhawan, the lawyer representing the officers, told the panel she would attempt to convince them the incident was a mistake and not racially motivated. 

Borden's lawyer, Devin Maxwell, said if that was the case, the force needs to explain why similar incidents keep happening.

Speaking to CBC News outside the hearing, Borden said she hopes the appeal results in change and reparations for the community. 

"I guess moving more funds into community support because that's what we need more than protection," she said.

Maxwell submitted several issues on Borden's behalf earlier in the year for the review board to consider.

Among the issues submitted, he requested the appeal be broadened to include all the officers involved and not just the two officers considered in the internal investigation. 

In its decision on the matter in August, the board said adding officers to the appeal would not be in the interest of "procedural fairness."

Maxwell had also asked the board to consider the appeal to be about the "long history" of racial bias, racial profiling and victimization of African Nova Scotians.

In its written decision, the board said the issue of racial bias in the entire police department could be brought up at the appeal if it was relevant.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here. 

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