Quebec's Human Rights Commission wants Montreal to repeal two bylaws it says discriminates against the homeless. (CBC)Quebec’s Human Rights Commission is urging the City of Montreal to scrap two bylaws it says discriminate against the homeless.

People living on the streets are the target of social profiling by police and public transit officials, and receive a disproportionate number of tickets for minor offences, the commission said in a report released Tuesday.

The commission also takes issue with a regulation outlawing dogs in Emilie-Gamelin Park and Viger Square, as well as a bylaw that closes 15 parks to the public overnight. Commission president Gaetan Cousineau said the regulations were specificially designed to target the homeless.

The number of tickets handed out to the homeless jumped 327 per cent between 1994 and 2005, Cousineau said.

"This is a great amount of money," said Cousineau. "Thirty per cent of the tickets going to the citizens of Montreal are being given to the homeless people and they only represent one per cent of the population."

The bylaws violate the right of homeless people to life, personal security and access to public spaces, Cousineau said.

The type of fine handed out to the homeless may vary depending on their age. Cousineau said the young are often penalized for loitering, jaywalking or even lying on a park bench — a fine that starts at $500.

Older homeless people are often ticketed for drinking or breaking park curfews.

"They are being sanctioned and other citizens are not, and so this is a discriminatory approach. And so we also call it social profiling," said Cousineau.

Groups working with the homeless said the report provides new details about a known problem.Quebec Human Rights Commission president Gaetan Cousineau says the number of tickets handed out to the homeless has jumped by 327 per cent. (CBC)

"The number of tickets, we knew about — but what is particularly new this time is that it is part of a systematic discrimination against that population," said Bernard St-Jacques of the group RAPSIM.

The commission is calling on the Montreal police force to improve training for its officers.

It is also recommending increased funding to build social housing and for programs supporting the social reintegration of street people.