'Black and driving a luxury vehicle': Quebec man wins racial profiling case against Repentigny police
The Quebec Human Rights Tribunal has ruled the Repentigny Police Service racially profiled a Black high school teacher in 2017 and the city has been ordered to pay him $8,000 in damages.
The tribunal ruled recently that François Ducas, a special education teacher and father of two, "was subject to a random stop because he was Black and was driving a luxury vehicle."
Ducas was driving his blue BMW on Dec. 8, 2017 to meet one of his students who was doing an internship when he was pulled over near Pare Boulevard.
For him, it was a usual encounter. He'd been stopped by police before for no apparent reason and this time, feeling that he'd had enough, he vowed not to comply with their demands. The officer asks him for his identification and his papers, questioning him whether or not the car is his.
He refused and called 911, but the dispatcher told him to cooperate with the officer's demands. A second officer intervenes and repeats their demand for his documentation.
HANDCUFFED ON THE SIDEWALK
"They told me that if I didn't hand over my papers, they would arrest me," Ducas recalled during a news conference Wednesday reacting to the ruling.
Within minutes, he was handcuffed and searched on the sidewalk when police eventually found the papers they were looking for.
A few days after the incident, Ducas received two tickets in the mail: one for obstructing a peace officer and another for swearing at a peace officer, both of which he paid. Three months later, he filed a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission, which took the case to the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal.
In a decision dated July 20, the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the police officers violated his rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that he was targeted due to the colour of his skin.
In requesting the case be thrown out, the city argued that the two police officers' conduct was not related to the colour of Ducas' skin and that the officers' intervention was justified under the Highway Safety Code.
The tribunal disagreed, writing that the officers would not have decided to turn around and follow Ducas if he were white.
"This decision cannot be explained otherwise than by stereotypes, unconscious biases," the tribunal wrote.
"The racial profiling to which Mr. Ducas was subjected violated the preservation of his dignity and caused him stress, the marks of which he still bears."
The city was ordered to pay him $8,000 in moral damages to denounce the officers' conduct.
"It's a good start," Ducas said, but added that the way Black people are treated in Repentigny needs to change.
The financial award was a disappointing amount for Fo Niemi, executive director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).
"It amounts to about $2,000 a year for all the suffering, all the humiliation, all the stress that he had to go through. It sends the message that Black lives are cheap," Niemi said.
CITY SAYS IT'S MAKING EFFORT TO END RACIAL PROFILING
In an email statement, the City of Repentigny said its police department has taken serious steps to combat racial profiling and pointed to an independent action plan commissioned last year, which included a list of recommendations which are being evaluated by an external agency. They include public consultations with local cultural and social groups and participation in the government's ACE program to diversity its police force.
"Like anyone, police officers have conscious and unconscious biases. As they carry out their duties, it is vital to be aware of that so that their every action is exempt of any form of discrimination," the city said in a statement issued Wednesday.
But Niemi said the city's plan doesn’t go far enough.
"The tribunal said they [the city] don’t see the need to impose race-based data collection so they can better measure and quantify the kinds of people that are being stopped by police," he said.
Ducas said with this decision, no one can deny the existence of racial profiling in Repentigny.
"I fought against racial profiling. Now, they can no longer say there is no racial profiling in Repentigny," Ducas said.
Ducas has now moved out of Repentigny and said he will donate the $8,000 to charity. He hopes this ruling will help others who have faced discrimination by the Repentigny Police Service, but what he really wants is an apology from the city.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
DEVELOPING 122 active wildfires burning across Canada, 32 considered 'out of control'
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
B.C. parents sentenced to 15 years for death of 6-year-old boy
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has sentenced the mother and stepfather of a six-year-old boy who died from blunt-force trauma in 2018 to 15 years in prison.
Veteran TSN sportscaster Darren Dutchyshen has died
Veteran TSN broadcaster Darren 'Dutch' Dutchyshen, one of Canada’s best-known sports journalists, has died. He was 57. His family says 'he passed as he was surrounded by his closest loved ones.'
Police issue Canada-wide warrant for Regina homicide suspect
Police have issued a Canada-wide warrant for a man wanted in a homicide which occurred in Regina on May 12.
Kevin Spacey receives star support as he fights to get his career back
Kevin Spacey is pushing back on the 'rush to judgment' against him and is being backed by some big names as he seeks to reclaim his acting career.
Speaker cuts ties with Sask. Party, alleges he faced threats, harassment from gov't MLAs
The Speaker of the Saskatchewan Legislature Randy Weekes has severed ties with the Sask. Party after accusing some members of harassment and intimidation tactics, including a situation he claimed saw the Government House Leader bring a hunting rifle to the legislative building.
Trudeau calls New Brunswick's Conservative government a 'disgrace' on women's rights
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assailed New Brunswick's premier and other conservative leaders on Thursday, calling out the provincial government's position on abortion, LGBTQ youth and climate change.
A Toronto man killed his mother and decapitated her. His lawyers argue it wasn't murder
A ‘lifetime of abuse’ led Dallas Ly to snap and repeatedly stab his mother inside their Leslieville apartment in 2022 but he never intended to kill her, his defence lawyers argued during his murder trial in Toronto on Thursday.
Father charged with second-degree murder in daughter's stabbing death southwest of Montreal
A father has been charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his 34-year-old daughter in southern Quebec.