An NDG man has filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission for allegedly being racially profiled by Montreal police officers.
Kenrick McRae is black and drives a Mercedes.
He says police have stopped him repeatedly, most recently two weeks ago.
On March 3rd, McRae claims he was driving in Montreal West when he was pulled over. He says the officer said he had to check if the car belongs to McRae. Then he was told the lights over his licence plate weren’t working, even though McRae says they were.
McRae says he told the officers that he was going to file a complaint against the police for harassment, and that's when things degenerated.
McRae was recording everything with his camcorder.
“The other one said hand over the camera,” he said. “I say I'm not giving you my camera, and then they lunged at me.”
McRae says he was cuffed and put in the back of the police car, and he was told he'd be charged with disturbing the peace.
Then police allegedly grabbed his camera and McRae says the officer deleted his videos.
Kenrick McRae doesn't have a criminal record, but he says this kind of thing keeps happening to him.
“In this case very likely because he's black and driving a Mercedes,” said Fo Niemi, the executive director of the Cenetre on Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).
With the help of CRARR, McRae has launched a complaint with the Human Rights Commission and the Police Ethics Commissioner.
A police supervisor wasn't available to comment on this case, but on its website, the SPVM insists it is firmly against any type of illicit racial profiling.
However, The Black Coalition of Quebec wants to launch a class action lawsuit against the Montreal Police for racial profiling.
Also, last month the Quebec Human Rights Commission ordered police to pay $17,000 to a man the Commission says was profiled when he was 15-years-old.
McRae says something has to change in police culture.
“It's come to the point where Kenrick McRae gets nervous about getting into his old Mercedes, worried police are going to pull him over,” Niemi said.