Lawsuit launched against Terrebonne and its police for racial profiling

A lawsuit has been launched against Terrebonne, north east of Montreal, and 18 of its police officers for alleged harassment, racial profiling, and systemic discrimination.

The case was presented in Quebec Superior Court by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission on behalf of Pierre-Marcel Monsanto, a Black Terrebonne resident in his 40s who says he was intercepted by police there repeatedly between September 2018 and April 2021.

“I’m scared,” he said. “So most of the time I don’t go out. If there’s an emergency or I really need something, I said to my wife, ‘you need to go out because I’m scared that I’m going to be killed.’ I feel like I’m unsafe. I feel like a second-class citizen. And I feel anxiety.

“Every single time they stopped me, I feel that maybe today is going to be my last day.”

A lawsuit has been launched by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission on behalf of Pierre Marcel Monsanto, a Black Terrebonne resident in his 40s who says he was intercepted by police there repeatedly between September 2018 and April 2021. Photo Credit: Alyssia Rubertucci/CityNews

Monsanto often drove a vehicle registered under his wife’s name, and when he did he says Terrebonne police would repeatedly pull him over for what they called “routine traffic checks.” The Centre for Research Action of Race Relations (CRARR), says Monsanto received over $1,300 in fines and was once arrested in front of his children.

“Most of the time they ask me, ‘what’s your relationship with this person?'” recounted Monsanto. “And they said, ‘are you allowed to drive this vehicle? Can you call this person to make sure that you are you are allowed to do this?'”

#WATCH: “Every single time they stop me, I feel maybe today is going to be my last day,” says Pierre-Marcel Monsanto, who’s been pulled over by Terrebonne police, north east of Montreal, around 30 times over a two-year period. A lawsuit is launched.

READ: https://t.co/giLx209KDq pic.twitter.com/b31zDYCv0g

— Alyssia (@rubertuccinews) January 4, 2023

According to the Quebec Human Rights Commission his license was checked 83 times during this time period.

With the help of CRARR, Monsanto filed 15 complaints with the Human Rights Commission for stops during that same timeframe.

“I’ve been living in Canada for two decades,” said Monsanto. “And I lived in Sherbrooke before and I didn’t have the same feeling. When I got to Terrebonne, I said, ‘oh it’s unique.’ This is the first time I’ve been since I live in Alberta. And I was driving my vehicle in Alberta, I didn’t have the same feeling when I came to Terrebonne.

“This need to be stopped.”

Terrebonne police operations centre on Jan. 4, 2023. (Credit: CityNews/Martin Daigle)

“What we hope is this case is going to fight and to end this biased police practice of stopping Black male drivers on the basis of the fact that they drive a car registered to a woman who can be their wives, their spouse, their sister or their mother,” said Fo Niemi of CRARR. “And this practice seems to be, shall we say, quite widespread.”

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The Commission concluded given the “high number of unusual interceptions” that Monsanto was a victim of racial discrimination and profiling.

It is requesting $150,000 in moral damages and $20,000 in punitive damages from the Town of Terrebonne.

It is also claiming $2,000 from 17 Terrebonne police officers involved and $1,000 from an additional officer.

In a statement, Terrebonne police tell CityNews they cannot comment, as the case is currently before the court. But they pointed to a document of a 2021 project called DROITS Devant that looks to transform the police department’s culture by putting the rights of all citizens first

The Commission is also calling for better training for police officers and the collection of race-based data on all police stops.

“I would like that this type of profiling and racism, they’ll stop,” said Monsanto. “And any Black people in Terrebonne can again be free, can feel free to go anywhere they want and without being stopped.”

The Terrebonne police force is already targeted in another case before the Human Rights Tribunal on behalf of another Black man who was stopped in 2019 for driving a vehicle registered under his spouse’s name.

Terrebonne police operations centre on Jan. 4, 2023. (Credit: CityNews/Martin Daigle)