A South Shore man was racially profiled when he was wrongfully arrested and jailed for nine hours after an off-duty police officer called 911 on him -- to report gunshots that turned out to be noise from an exploding Hydro-Quebec transformer, according to a Quebec’s human rights ruling.

It took four years for Malik Spaulding-Smith and his mother to win their case after officers pulled up to their home in Saint-Constant, Que. with their guns drawn. 

The Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission ruled last month that he was discriminated against due to his race and that, as a result of his treatment, his mother was also subjected to discrimination.

The commission ordered the off-duty police officer to pay Spaulding-Smith $44,000 and his mother, Suzette Spaulding, $17,000 in moral and punitive damages. Since he refused to pay, the case is now heading to court.

“My Black friends and myself have been so often stopped by the police, as if we don’t belong and that we don’t have the right to drive the kind of cars and go freely [as] we want,” Spaulding-Smith said in a press release after the decision was released.

“This incident made me lose all confidence in the police.”

The incident dates back to the morning of June 21, 2017, when the man was parked outside a home a few streets down from his own to have a smoke and talk to his friend on his cellphone. He was 20 at the time and chose that spot to park because he didn't want his family to know he was a smoker. 

The owner of the home outside of which he was parked came out and asked him to leave.

According to the decision, the neighbour had problems with a Black pimp who had been seeing his “belle-fille,” which can mean stepdaughter or daughter-in-law in French.

When the homeowner went back inside his home after his interaction with Spaulding-Smith, he heard what he believed to be gunshots.

He immediately called 911 and gave police a description of Spaulding-Smith and his licence plate, prompting a major, armed police response from the Régie intermunicipale de police Roussillon, which showed up at his home just before 11 a.m.

After nine hours, Spaulding-Smith was released from jail without charges. In the meantime, his mother wasn’t allowed to go back into her home until 8:30 p.m. that evening.

The commission’s ruling found there was sufficient evidence that Spaulding-Smith was racially profiled and that his mother was a secondary victim of the same discrimination.

Montreal advocacy group the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) supported the family in their human-rights case, adding that “this decision further stresses the need to sanction the abusive and unjustified association of Black men with street gangs.”

“We welcome the commission’s claim of high moral damages for Malik. Raising the price tag for racial profiling can help deter this practice,” said Fo Niemi, executive director of CRARR, in a press release. 

The province’s Police Ethics Commissioner also cited two male police officers for not releasing Spaulding-Smith when there was no reason for his lengthy detention.