Quebec Judge Orders End to Random Traffic Stops Following Racial Profiling Case

A Quebec Superior Court judge has ruled that random traffic stops by police are a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Judge Michel Yergeau argued that the stops impacted Black people more than other groups of people.

“Racial profiling does exist,” Yergeau said. “It is not a laboratory-constructed abstraction. It is not a view of the mind. It is a reality that weighs heavily on Black communities. It manifests itself in particular among Black drivers of motor vehicles.”

The court allowed a six-month delay until the invalidation of random traffic stops takes effect.

A 22-year-old Black man, Joseph-Christopher Luamba, sparked the process after he told the court that he’d been stopped by police approximately 10 times without valid reasoning since he first got his driver’s licence in 2018.

Though none of the stops resulted in a ticket, Luamba still became frustrated with the constant stops.

“I was frustrated,” Luamba said to the court. “Why was I stopped? I followed the rules. I didn’t commit any infractions.”

Luamba then filed a lawsuit against the Canadian and Quebec governments, which began in May of this year.

The lawsuit resulted in the court deeming that random traffic stops violate the right of Canadians guaranteed by Sections 7 and 9 and paragraph 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“The preponderant evidence shows that over time, the arbitrary power granted to the police to carry out roadside stops without cause has become for some of them a vector, even a safe conduit for racial profiling against the Black community,” Yergeau wrote in his ruling.

There was no word on whether an appeal would be made.