Montreal senior fights against racial profiling, fourth court hearing for driving while Black case

A Montreal senior in his late 60s from Côte-des-Neiges was in Municipal Court for the fourth time to fight a driving while Black case.

The case has been recognized by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission as a racial profiling case.

In July 2019, Kerr, who is of Jamaican background, stopped to pick up food for his family at a KFC on Barclay Avenue and Victoria Street before going to visit his son in hospital.

“I walk to the Kentucky door and held on to the door,” Kerr recounted. “I heard in a very loud voice, very aggressive behavior, very aggressively, ‘let go the door, let go the door. Get back in your car.'”

Those orders were coming from two Montreal police officers, he says.

He complied and returned to his vehicle. He was driving his then-partner’s car.

Frightened, he called 9-1-1 twice to ask for a supervisor, not knowing what was going on.

“I see a lot of other police cars coming up. Coming up. Coming up. Coming up. So I told 9-1-1, I said, ‘I’m scared. A lot of police cars coming and I’m Black, they shoot me.’

The Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) says that a total of four police cars and eight officers were at the scene. The first two officers asked for his ID and eventually gave him a $483 ticket for obstruction, under the Highway Safety Code.

“It started by the simple traffic stop,” said CRARR executive director Fo Niemi. “It ended up with a total of four police cars, eight police officers at the site and at the end, a ticket to 480 something dollars for basic obstruction of a police officer’s work under the highway safety code.”

CRARR filed a complaint on Kerr’s behalf before the Commission, which ruled last July that he was a victim of racial profiling and that the City of Montreal and the two officers involved pay him a total of $28,000 in damages. The case is now before the Human Rights Tribunal.

“It’s going to be a long court battle, but it’s important as a matter of principle to do this because we really have to prove that the justice system works for victims of racial profiling by the police,” said Niemi.

Kerr “appeared in court in March, October and early November to fight this ticket, as a matter of principle. Since he represented himself but had difficulties expressing himself due to his language, age and health, the judge gave him another opportunity to come back with a lawyer.”

Kerr was represented by René Saint-Léger on Tuesday morning.

The judge in his case has asked the prosecutor and the defense take into account the framework of Superior Court decision in the Luamba case, which Niemi says “involves the abusive and discriminatory application of one article of the Highway Safe Code on Black drivers.”

“This decision is relevant to our case because it is also about driving while Black and another article (638.1, on obstruction) of the Highway Safety Code, and how Mr. Kerr’s race could be a factor that influenced two police officers’ actions when they stopped and treated him after the stop,” added Niemi.

Montreal Police tells CityNews in an email that they will not comment on the case at the moment, given that the legal proceedings are currently underway.