Quebec’s Public Security Department announced late Friday afternoon that most random traffic stops by police are suspended, days after the Court of Appeal affirmed that arbitrary road checks lead to racial profiling.
The department stated that the new policy has been in effect since April 1, when the Quebec Court of Appeal denied the government’s request to continue arbitrary police traffic stops until the Supreme Court hears the province’s legal challenge. The Court of Appeal said in a decision it issued on Monday that the public’s benefits from allowing random stops outweigh the negative effects on the Black community. Instead, while the case moves through the legal process at the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal Justice Stéphane Sansfaçon restricted the types of traffic stops that could be carried out. “are likely to have negative impacts on Black people that are much more significant than the benefits to the general public that come from applying the measure during this period,” Sansfaçon wrote. Permitting arbitrary police traffic stops The judge stated that, prior to a potential Supreme Court hearing, only certain arbitrary stops may continue. They include checks for impaired driving in which officers request a breathalyzer sample, which is a requirement of the Criminal Code and can only be carried out by officers who are in possession of a detection device. Also authorized are stops by provincial roadside inspectors seeking to pull aside trucks or taxis, which fall under their jurisdiction.The Public Security Department said on Friday that the suspension does not prevent police “from carrying out a traffic stop when they have reasonable grounds to believe that an offence is being committed.” Last October, the Court of Appeal upheld a landmark 2022 lower court decision that declared inoperative an article of the province’s Highway Safety Code that allowed police to randomly stop drivers without a reasonable suspicion that an offence has been committed.
According to the 2022 decision, arbitrary police stops result in racial profiling and violate constitutional rights like equality rights and freedom from arbitrary detention. However, the ruling did not apply to structured police operations like roadside checkpoints designed to stop drunk drivers but rather to sporadic traffic stops. The Highway Safety Code needed to be updated within six months in order to comply with the Court of Appeal’s decision. Superior Court Justice Michel Yergeau ruled in October 2022 that “racial profiling does exist. It is not an abstraction constructed in a laboratory; rather, it is a reality that has a significant impact on Black communities. Black motorists are particularly susceptible to this manifestation. “For some of them, a vector, even a safe conduit for racial profiling against the Black community,” according to Yergeau, evidence had shown over time that the police’s arbitrary authority to make unjustified stops at the side of the road. Joseph-Christopher Luamba, a 22-year-old Black Montrealer, filed the lawsuit. He claimed that he had been stopped by Quebec police nearly a dozen times without a reason and that none of the stops had resulted in a ticket. The Quebec government announced in December that it would take the matter to the Supreme Court, and the following month, it requested that the Court of Appeal extend its six-month deadline to modify the highway code until the case is heard by the nation’s highest court. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association urged the police departments of Quebec to elaborate on their strategies for complying with the ruling earlier on Friday. Abby Deshman, the association’s interim executive director, stated, “To ensure these unconstitutional practices come to an end, we need full transparency and accountability from law enforcement.” This week, The Canadian Press sent requests to the public security and justice departments of the province for police compliance plans.
Quebec suspends random traffic stops by police after court rejects extension request
