Facing potential contempt of court charges, the City of Longueuil, Que., asked for a postponement of a Quebec Human Rights Tribunal hearing relating to a racial profiling case. The case dates back to 2012 and involves Joel Debellefeuille. He was driving with his wife to his son’s daycare in Longueuil. He says police followed him and questioned him, simply because he is Black.  Read More

Carl Moïse felt his wheel shudder as he drove his child to a soccer game. Then it began to wobble on the highway and almost fell off his car. The lug nuts had been loosened. The Montreal civil servant, who was subject to racist taunts, insults, threats and intimidation over much of his 14-year career with the city’s transport and environment departments, feared the worst. As section manager, Moïse was told by a superior early in his career “You have to adapt to the city’s organizational culture if you want to keep working here.”  Read More

Groups representing the Black community said Tuesday the Plante administration’s attempts to root out systemic discrimination and embedded racism within the city’s workforce are merely symbolic. “It’s a dog and pony show; it’s a smokescreen,” said Alain Babineau, the director of racial profiling and public safety of the Red Coalition and a former RCMP staff sergeant. The coalition filed a complaint on Tuesday with the Municipal Commission of Quebec against Montreal executive committee chairperson Dominique Ollivier for comments she made to Le Devoir in an article published March 13.  Read More

A 2012 racial profiling case has led to the City of Longueuil facing charges of contempt of court, for failure to publish data about racial profiling. This is after Joel Debellefeuille won his racial profiling case against the Longueuil police in 2020. The human rights tribunal ruled the city of Longueuil had to publish data related to racial profiling within 24 months – which it failed to do.  Read More

Le ministre de la Sécurité publique, François Bonnardel, a déposé mercredi un projet de loi qui prévoit des modifications concernant les activités policières, principalement pour lutter contre le profilage racial au sein des corps de police. Dans la mouture actuelle, le projet de loi 14 obligerait au ministre de la Sécurité publique à «établir une ligne directrice» lors d’interpellations policières, y compris les interceptions routières. Un manquement à cette directive pourrait «constituer une faute» et ainsi aboutir en sanction disciplinaire.  Read More

Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel has introduced a bill to modernize police practices that will maintain the use of section 636 of the highway code. Bonnardel tabled the omnibus bill that groups legislative amendments concerning police and public safety agencies, and aims to combat racial profiling and ensuring public confidence in police forces. The bill obliges the Minister to establish guidelines concerning police stops. Police forces will also be required to report annually all police stops, including those under section 636 of the Highway Safety Code which allows law enforcement to randomly stop drivers without reasonable and probable cause.  Read More