Montreal group calling for ban to police street checks

A Montreal non-profit is launching a campaign calling on Quebec to ban police street checks.

The freedoms and rights league (LDL) published the "Police Street Checks in Quebec, a Practice to Ban" handbook in addition to the call to ban the practice the organization says "infringes on various rights and freedoms and is a dimension of racial and social profiling."

The LDL said street checks do not have a legal basis and that police officers do not have authority under common law to make such stops.

"Nor have they demonstrated the necessity of this practice to ensure public safety," the LDL said in a news release.

"[It is] an arbitrary practice that creates insecurity among the people and communities targeted by the police," said LDL spokesperson Lynda Khelil. "Any attempt by the authorities to regulate street checks with guidelines is nothing but a smokescreen."

An October Quebec Superior Court ruling found that arbitrary traffic stops were unconstitutional, a decision the Quebec government is appealing.

The LDL is distinguishing traffic stops from the street checks they would like banned.

"A street check is an attempt by a police officer to obtain the identity of a person and to gather information, in a circumstance where the person has no legal obligation to identify himself/herself or to answer questions." the organization sais in the release. "Such street checks take place outside the context of an arrest, detention or police investigation."

The LDL says the purpose of the checks is for intelligence gathering and to add info into a database.

"Police powers are limited and it is the least we can do to demand an end to street checks, when they exceed these powers and cause human rights violations," said LDL spokesperson Laurence Guénette.

After a 2019 SPVM report on street checks found that racialized people were more likely to be stopped, the Montreal police said they would only be performed based on observable facts and not "discriminatory motives."

Quebec's Public Security Minister released guidelines for the province's police forces in 2020 to ensure street checks are not random, unfounded or discriminatory.