Quebec Court of Appeal Blocks Traffic Stop Law, Exposing Racial Profiling in Policing

Lawyers who represented Joseph Christopher Luamba celebrate their victory in federal court. PHOTO: Courtesy Lex Gill

It was a crisp fall evening when Svens Telemaque began his shift as an Uber driver. 

A Montréal native and community worker, he drove through streets lined with trees shedding red and amber leaves, picking up clients as dusk settled over the city.

Near Boisbriand on Montréal’s North Shore, Svens had just picked up an elderly passenger and was easing into the rhythm of his shift when, suddenly, flashing red and blue lights filled his rearview mirror. Thinking the police car would pass by, he pulled over — but then realized, with a jolt of fear and panic, that they were stopping for him.

“They pulled me over, flashed a light in my face, demanded my license, and told me that ‘we’ve had a lot of stolen vehicles around here. Is this one yours?’ The cop then noticed my client in the back and, without another word, jumped into his car and drove off,” he said.

Svens’ experience is nothing new for young Black people in Quebec. Racism within the police force has been broadly accepted, with commander Patrice Vilcéus describing it as a “cancer eating away at the organization” in his resignation letter from the Service de police de la ville de Montréal (SPVM). Between 2014 and 2017, the Montréal police used their “street check” policy to stop Black people at nearly five times the rate of whites, according to a study using the department’s data.

Over the past three years, we’ve heard stories of Montréal police arresting a Black man and accusing him of stealing his own car, a Black man thrown in prison for six days and falsely accused of attempting to kill a police officer, and countless other incidents involving allegations of racial profiling.

Though the data points to a crisis within the province’s police force, Premier François Legault refuses to acknowledge the problem of systemic racism.

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Yet in late October, the Quebec Court of Appeal confirmed that race-based discrimination exists, upholding a decision made by the Superior Court in 2022 that invalidated section 636 of the Highway Safety Code.

Nicknamed the ‘driving while Black’ law, the Court ruled that it violated the Canadian Charter of Rights. The panel of Court of Appeal judges voted in favour of the original decision as it violated the rights of freedom from arbitrary detention and equality, permitting a loophole for racial profiling by police.

Under section 636 of the Quebec Highway Code, police officers had the right to stop any road vehicle without cause. In practice, these stoppages predominantly targeted young Black men driving SUVs.

One such case was that of Joseph Christopher Luamba, a young Black Montréal resident,

who was stopped almost a dozen times without even once receiving a ticket.

Luamba brought a legal challenge to the Quebec government with the help of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), the Commission on Human Rights and Youth Rights, and the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers.

The CCLA argued that the random stops by police were not random at all and violated the liberties of freedom from arbitrary detention and equality guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Following his decision in 2022, Superior Court judge Justice Michel Yergeau ruled that random stops did facilitate race-based discrimination, going on to say that “racial profiling does exist. It manifests itself in particular with Black drivers of motor vehicles.”

Svens Telemaque was pulled over by police while driving with no just cause. PHOTO: Courtesy Svens Telemaque

Lex Gill, a lawyer representing the CCLA, described the judgment by the Court of Appeal to uphold the original ruling as a huge win for equality rights in Canada.

“It’s a landmark decision, the Court of Appeal’s judgment charts a new course for equality rights in Canada, and in a sense this is the first time that a police power has been invalidated on the basis that it facilitates discrimination. And that’s huge,” said Gill.

“Systemic racism is a profound issue in Quebec, much like any place else in North America, and this driving stop power is just one manifestation of this sort of discrimination,” she said. “These stops are so notorious that academic literature in Canada calls it the ‘driving while Black’ power, it’s literally seen as a law used for racial profiling.”

“This decision shows us that policing institutions in Quebec are in drastic need of profound structural change. But on the other hand, we can see that the courts can recognize that they have the power to do something about these injustices, and that, to me, is a sign of a healthy, functional judicial system.”

The judgment stands as damning evidence of systemic racism in Quebec policing — and of Legault’s ongoing denial of its existence. According to a statement by the Red Coalition, an anti-racism lobby group, his dismissal and inaction to confront the problem seems to have emboldened race-based discrimination in Quebec.

In September, this led the group to call on the Quebec government to urgently create legislation to help stop the rise in racial injustices and hate crimes, and to provide a legal framework to combat systemic discrimination.

The views of the Legault government lie in stark contrast to those of Quebecers. A 2021 study by the Association for Canadian Studies found that 66 per cent of residents believed that the term is an accurate description of the type of discrimination and prejudice experienced by minorities in the province.

“I would say to Premier Legault that we just had a six-week trial with uncontested evidence where the courts have concluded that police are targeting Black and racialized people,” said Gill. “If you need any more proof as to how prevalent racism is within the policing system then I suggest you go check out a provincial prison or sit in at a criminal court hearing and tell me how many rich white people are there because there’s hardly any except for the lawyers,” she said.

Frédéric Bérard is a constitutional lawyer and a doctor of Law at Université de Montréal. He is also a political and legal commentator for the Journal Métro, Cogeco, and Radio-Canada.

“Either the Legault government is stupid enough to believe that systemic racism doesn’t exist in Quebec, or they know that it does but they are pretending that it doesn’t in order to please racists like Matthew Bock-Côté and a certain element in its electoral base,” he said. “Even the police boss says that some of his cops are practicing racist policies.”

In the wake of the Court of Appeal’s decision, the Quebec government has six months to

make the necessary changes to the Highway Safety Code, though, as it stands, the Legault administration may still appeal the decision at the Supreme Court.

“The Legault government is claiming that this ruling will make the police’s job more difficult but this is total bullshit because if you’re a cop and someone is violating the rule of law, you can arrest them without question,” said Bérard. 

“Nobody is saying that Quebec is a racist place, however, it has now been proved that there is some systemic racism in certain areas. If it is true that we live under the rule of law then the Legault government has no choice but to respect the ruling of the court.”

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