Court of Appeal upholds Quebec ruling that invalidated random police stops

Quebec's Court of Appeal upheld a landmark 2022 decision on Wednesday that found a law permitting random traffic stops by police led to racial profiling.

The province's high court agreed with a Superior Court ruling that said an article of the province's Highway Safety Code that allows police to stop drivers without a reasonable suspicion that an offence has been committed is unconstitutional.

The Court of Appeal says in the unanimous decision that the law violates Charter rights, including freedom from arbitrary detention and equality rights.

• READ MORE: Black Lives Ruined: The effects of racial profiling by police

Joseph-Christopher Luamba, a 22-year-old Black Montrealer who said he had been stopped by Quebec police nearly a dozen times without reason with none resulting in a ticket, was at the heart of the legal action.

Uncontested evidence on trial showed that most of these random stops mostly affected young Black drivers.

Superior Court Justice Michel Yergeau wrote in the October 2022 decision that “racial profiling does exist. It is not a laboratory-constructed abstraction ... It is a reality that weighs heavily on Black communities. It manifests itself in particular with Black drivers of motor vehicles."

He also said in his decision that the power granted to the police to make roadside stops without cause became "for some of them, a vector, even a safe conduit for racial profiling against the Black community."

"The rule of law thus becomes ... a breach through which this sneaky form of racism rushes in.”

Luamba was backed by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association in his constitutional challenge of the practice.

Lex Gill, one of the lawyers representing the civil rights group, said it was clear that random stops were not happening on a truly random basis and there was no proof they had any value for public safety.

She called it a “great day for civil liberties in Canada.”

“It’s a landmark judgement … that really sets a new standard for how courts across Canada should be dealing with discriminatory police powers — police powers that we can prove disproportionately impact vulnerable, racialized, marginalized communities,” she said.

The 2022 decision only affected random stops and not structured police operations such as roadside checkpoints aimed at stopping drunk drivers. Because of the appeal process, the decision wasn’t implemented in the Highway Safety Code.

The matter could end up before the Supreme Court of Canada if the province decides to appeal the latest judgment. Otherwise, the change will go into effect in six months.

But Gill said that even though the judgment “is not in full-force” it doesn’t mean “police has carte blanche to stop whoever they want” and that the “government fully knows that it is unconstitutional.”

Public Security Minister François Bonnardel reacted to the judgment on social media platform X, saying it was "obviously not the desired outcome." 

"This decision could have direct impacts on the work of police officers to ensure the safety of the population. We will take the time to analyze the judgment," he wrote.

 

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV Montreal's Matt Gilmour