Police stops: a favourable judgment for victims of racial profiling?

There is noise in some community circles. The City will have to compensate people who have been subjected to racial profiling by the SPVM in the context of arrests. While some are delighted with this news, others feel that it is insufficient. For example, it excludes victims of racial profiling during road interceptions, cases that are far from being isolated in Quebec. Here is our report.

On September 3, the Superior Court of Quebec ordered the City of Montreal to compensate people who were victims of racial profiling during police stops conducted between August 2017 and January 2019, concluding that the City is responsible, as an employer, for the discrimination committed by its police officers. This decision follows a complaint filed by the Black Coalition of Quebec and Alexandre Lamontagne, a victim of racial profiling in August 2017, against the City of Montreal.

The municipal administration has 30 days to appeal. If it does not file an appeal, the victims of these arrests without just cause will then be able to receive compensation ranging from $2,500 to $5,000.

This decision is a step forward, according to Max Stanley Bazin, the president of the Black Coalition of Quebec. On the other hand, it does not deal with cases of racial profiling that occurred as a result of traffic interceptions. Although few studies document precisely these discriminations, Police ethics complaints dealing with situations of racism or racial profiling related to road interceptions in Quebec increased from 68 in 2021-22 to 103 in 2023-2024, an increase of 51.5%. A figure that masks the extent of the phenomenon suffered by Montrealers who choose not to turn to the courts.

This is not the case with Pierre Fritzner, who is currently waiting for justice to rule on his complaint. Although his case is concerning a road interception and not a regular stop, he considers himself a victim of racial profiling. This is also the case of several people who have been stopped driving their vehicle without cause, but who will not be eligible for compensation, despite the injustice they feel they have been victims of.

Road interceptions are different from regular interceptions. Police officers who stop citizens behind the wheel can do so without reason, as specified in article 636 of the Road Safety Code. However, in 2022, a decision by Justice Yergeau, of the Superior Court of Quebec, invalidated this provision in the Luamba case, considering that random traffic interceptions encouraged situations of racial profiling. The case has been appealed and a decision has not yet been rendered at the time of writing.

The habit of being questioned, a social problem‍

Spring 2021. It is almost midnight, and Pierre Fritzner is just finishing work, which keeps him in the office until late. He gets in his car and takes the usual route home, about 20 minutes away, to the Villeray—Parc-Extension district.

According to him, a police car saw him and turned around before following him for several kilometers. “It happened three years ago, but I remember it as if it were yesterday,” explains the 60-year-old of Haitian origin.

“I was tired, I was driving slowly and safely, but I knew that I was being followed and that the police were just waiting for an offense on my part to turn on their flashing light,” says the Montrealer. Then, as expected, the police vehicle's red and blue lights come on and the squad car comes closer. He explains that he pulled over to the side of the street, making sure to stand at the corner of a major boulevard: “I was a lonely Black man who was stopped at midnight. I wanted to be somewhere where they could see me, I didn't want to be with police officers in a dark and hard to reach place,” he said.

According to him, the police questioned him for two hours: “Where are you from? Where are you going? Do you live in the area? Why are you out driving at midnight? ” recalls Pierre Fritzner. “I had not done anything illegal, and I was made to gag until 2 am because I aroused a suspicion that, presumably, is linked to my skin colour.” He is outraged. The police finally let him go with three tickets for minor offenses, including for a taillight that no longer worked.

Mr. Fritzner was born and raised in Montreal. In the early 1980s, when he was only 16, the police, he explains, kept arresting him. “I was so tired, I even went to file a complaint at the police station. Then I realized that it was absurd to want to file a complaint against the police with the police.”

For Pierre, all this is absurd. “There are thousands of stories like mine every year. I created a group, the Victims of Racial Profiling Foundation, which brings together people who have experienced episodes similar to mine,” he says. He believes that the decision rendered by the Superior Court on September 3 is in favour of change, but that it will take a long time before the police force stops discriminating against citizens.

The price to pay to be compensated

In the offices of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) located downtown, we meet Fo Niemi, co-founder and executive director of this NGO dedicated to the defense of civil rights. CRARR collaborates with lawyers who defend victims of racial injustice.

Facing the bay windows overlooking Sainte-Catherine Street, a few lawyers are silently busy with their files, surrounded by stacks of papers.

“$5,000 in compensation for a victim of racial profiling? If you were arrested, handcuffed, maybe even shoved, and detained... $5,000?" he repeats, visibly outraged. “Human value is underestimated. The minimum compensation should be $10,000! ” he exclaims.

Beyond the sum, it is the slowness of the process that discourages many victims, says Mr. Niemi: “The Commission on Human Rights and Youth Rights can take up to three years to investigate and make a decision. Then, it can take two more years for the case to be brought before the Human Rights Tribunal and toreach a verdict.” Victims may therefore have to wait up to five years to get compensation that they consider insufficient. “Very few are ready to engage in so much paperwork for so little,” he notes.

For many, waiting also becomes a psychological burden. “It's very difficult because some people can't move on. They are constantly brought back to this business.” This is especially true for young people, who often give up quickly. “People who go all the way are generally between the ages of 30 and 45. The younger ones get discouraged quickly.”

Nevertheless, an increase in the number of complaints has been noted since the beginning of 2024. “A complaint almost every two weeks,” says Fo Niemi, twice as many as before 2024. He cannot explain this increase precisely, but he welcomes it and once again encourages all persons who are victims of racial profiling to file a complaint.

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Arrests “without valid reason”

Massimiliano Mulone is a criminologist by profession and an expert on the issue of racial profiling. In 2017, he was requested by the SPVM following numerous complaints filed by citizens concerning unequal treatment of members of racialized communities during arrests carried out by the police force.

But what does a “police stop” mean in a context of racial profiling? “It's similar to what you might call a 'routine check'. This is not an arrest, but a situation that arouses the interest of the police officer. An offence is not necessary for a police officer to stop a person, and the decision to arrest depends entirely on the person,” said Mr. Mulone.

“During a stop, the police officer has the right to identify and question the person he is targeting without valid reason,” he adds. And precisely, it is this “without valid reason” that is problematic, since it implies that a police officer has the right to intercept anyone, according to the expert.

In a independent report on the City of Montreal Police Department of 2019, of which Mr. Mulone is one of the authors, we can read that “certain groups are more targeted by police stops. In fact, Indigenous people are six times more likely to be stopped by the police than white people. Black people are questioned four times more than white people depending on their demographic weight.” Arab or North African people are 2.5 times more likely to be stopped.

Following these observations, the SPVM said it “humbly welcomes the results of the investigation and is committed to applying the experts' recommendations and re-engaging them in order to understand the data that has been collected.”

But in a second report, published in June 2023, the expert notes the following: “The increase in police stops concerns all groups, but it is Indigenous people and Arab people who have experienced, in relative terms, the largest increase.”

Discourses and practice

Fady Dagher, the Montreal police chief, recognized in court during his testimony in this case “the existence of racial profiling and systemic discrimination within the SPVM.” In February 2023, Mayor Valérie Plante, who also testified during this trial, indicated that the City recognized “the systemic nature of discrimination.”

However, experts believe that part of the problem on the ground is how police understand accusations of racism. “In their opinion, being racist implies an explicit intention to discriminate. They imagine, for example, that only a white supremacist, fully aware and proud of his racist beliefs, could be qualified that way,” said Mr. Mulone.

However, police officers can discriminate without the intention of harming, he points out: “It's much more complex than that. Prejudices, implicit biases, and structural discrimination are not just deliberate actions.”

On Tuesday, September 24, in his resignation letter obtained by Le Devoir, Major Patrice Vilcéus also denounced systemic racism within the SPVM, describing this problem as “a cancer that is eating away at the organization.”

Are police stops essential to our safety? 

According to the SPVM, police stops are presented as necessary for the safety of the population. The site of the Montreal Police Department indicates that they aim to “prevent incivility” as well as “violations of laws and regulations.” However, “there is no scientific evidence to support this claim,” comments Mr. Mulone.

These practices could even be counterproductive: “Targeting individuals disproportionately because of their skin colour creates a climate of insecurity among the population, especially among minorities. This type of racial profiling creates tensions and damages the relationship of trust between law enforcement and the community (...) contributing to more insecurity, rather than preventing it.”

Under these conditions, how can we limit, or even stop, police stopsthat lead to episodes of profiling?  

The report's main recommendation is to impose a moratorium on stops without valid reason within the police service. Thus, it would be necessary to “voluntarily suspend any police arrest that is not justified by the investigation of a specific crime or by the reasonable suspicion of an illegal activity”.

Towards a change in police practices?

For Pierre Fritzner, Massimiliano Mulone and Fo Niemi, the observation is clear: the SPVM has numerous shortcomings.

“Even if the causes of this problem are more profound,” continues Mr. Mulone, “an unfavourable judgment of police practices such as unwarranted stops and the bill of compensation for victims of racial profiling will surely push the City and its police department to rethink their practices.”

Questioned on this point, the SPVM said it was sensitive to the situation and confirmed that work was under way to analyze the court decision, in collaboration with the Legal Affairs Department.

The City of Montreal did not wish to indicate whether it intended to appeal the decision of September 3, “[since it is] currently analyzing the judgment rendered.”

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Note: A previous version of this article stated that CRARR's affiliated lawyers are volunteers. In fact, they are not volunteers and charge for the work they do with CRARR.