Racial profiling: a collective action authorized against nine police corps

The Superior Court allows a collective appeal against nine police bodies, including the Sûreté du Québec, in connection with racial profiling.

Six of the nine bodies targeted are located in Greater Montreal.

The court authorized the applicant’s request, Papa Ndianko Gueye, on April 22.

The latter submitted the request for court following an interception in March 2021 by the Police Service of the Agglomeration of Longueuil (SPAL). The news was first reported by The daily.

Papa Ndianko Gueye argues that during his interception, he did not believe he had committed a road offense, but the reinforcement was quickly requested. He says the agent is aggressive towards him.

Three days later, the applicant went to the Police Service of Longueuil to inquire about the interception. He then learns that the Spal does not have any information in its system concerning this event.

April 9, 2021 [une semaine plus tard, NDLR]the applicant receives three reports of offense by post, including one for having circulated beyond the permitted speed. The applicant alleys that the interception was not based on any real reason and constituted a case of racial profilingcan we read in the document.

Collective action, authorized by judge Catherine Piché, aims at all Racalized person who has been the subject of a road interception without reason to suspect the commission of an offense by the police services of one of the defendants cities or by the Sûreté du Québec since May 23, 2019.

The appeal aims Compensation for racialized persons victims of profiling suffered in the context of a certain type of road interception, that is to say interceptions without reason to suspect the commission of an offense.

The parties are summoned to an audience in Montreal to make their representation heard within 60 days of judgment.

A decision supported

In her judgment, judge Piché is largely based on the file of Joseph-Christopher Luamba. The 22 -year -old Montrealer claimed to have been arrested by Quebec police almost a dozen times without reason and that none of these arrests has given rise to a ticket.

Last October, the Quebec Court of Appeal confirmed this historic decision rendered in 2022 according to which a law authorizing random road checks by the police led to racial profiling. The decision will be debated in the Supreme Court.

Recall that in September, the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) was found guilty of having been racial profiling. The City of Montreal was ordered to pay $ 5,000 to anyone who would have been arrested without justification between July 2018 and January 2019 and whose personal information was recorded by the police.

A petition given to Quebec Tuesday

The decision of judge Piché occurs a few days before the delivery of a petition before the Quebec Municipal Council to ask the SPVQ to ban the “Thin Blue line” badge.

The Thin Blue Line is a badge showing the Gray Canadian Unifolié crossed by a horizontal blue line. Police believe that it symbolizes the police line separating the good from evil. The controversial symbol has however been brandished and recovered by far -right groups in recent years.

The Quebec section of the League for Rights and Freedoms considers badge in particular as a symbol that supports racial profiling and police brutality.