Racial profiling a ‘systemic problem’ in Montreal police, judge rules in class action

Racial profiling is a systemic problem in the Montreal police force and profiling victims deserve compensation, a Quebec Superior Court judge ruled on Tuesday in a class-action lawsuit.

“The City of Montreal is responsible for racial profiling committed by its police officers in the exercise of their duties and is required to reimburse damages suffered by the members (of the class action),” Justice Dominique Poulin wrote in a judgment.

The case was brought by the Black Coalition of Quebec, which was seeking $171 million — up to $5,000 per person who was racially profiled and whose information was taken by police.

The lead plaintiff in the case was Alexandre Lamontagne, who was stopped by Montreal police while leaving an Old Montreal bar in 2017, pinned to the ground, handcuffed and taken to the station.

“It’s important to fight because someone has to do it, what happened to me was disrespectful,” he said.

He was issued three statements of offence and charged with obstructing police work and assaulting a police officer, but most proceedings against him were eventually dropped.

“I had to go to the police station to take a mug shot like I’m a criminal, that’s unacceptable,” he said.

With Tuesday’s ruling, Lamontagne will receive $5,000.

Poulin ordered the City of Montreal to pay $5,000 to those who were arrested without justification and racially profiled, with others entitled to lesser amounts.

“I feel satisfied because it’s not all about the money,” said Lamontagne. “It’s about the principle that the justice was made, so the judge recognized that there’s racial profiling made by the police and she made the good decision.”

The parties will have to work out a plan for payment with the judge. 

The trial heard from numerous witnesses including Montreal police Chief Fady Dagher and Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante. For its part, the city recognizes racial profiling within the police force, as well as the existence of systemic biases, the ruling reads. However the city argued “systemic” did not signify “systematic” and that profiling was not a widespread tactic.

“The court concludes that the city is liable, as principal, for the discriminatory and wrongful acts committed against the members of the group by the police officers in the performance of their duties,” the judge wrote in Tuesday’s decision.

“The court also finds that the city is itself at fault, in that it contributes to the racial profiling caused by its arrest procedures,” the ruling said, adding that members of racialized groups are over-represented in police stops, and that “the plausible explanation for this disparity is the racial profiling that characterizes many arrests.”

“The problem is really hard,” said Max Stanley Bazin of the Black Coalition of Quebec. “This is a systemic problem and systemic is every day, everywhere, anytime.” 

At a press conference on Wednesday morning, Mayor Valérie Plante says her administration is taking this seriously – she testified at a hearing for the class-action in Feb. 2023.

“I’m the mayor who decided to acknowledge and to name that there is systemic racism and discrimination throughout the world, ultimately, So obviously in Montreal as well, and it’s often based on how things are being done,” Plante said. “We need to create a reflex of questioning ways and also within our processes of hiring. And one of the reasons why I was very thrilled to choose Fady Dagher as chief of police is also because he did recognize it.”

A City of Montreal spokesman said its legal department is analyzing the ruling.

Montreal police declined our request for an interview but told CityNews in a statement that: “The SPVM is sensitive to the situation referred to in this decision and is aware of the judgment rendered. we can confirm that work to analyze this decision is underway, in collaboration with the Legal Affairs Division.”

Recognizing racial profiling key to ‘historic’ Montreal class-action judgment: lawyer

For Mike Diomande, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, the decision released Tuesday was “historic” because it establishes that racialized people in the city were victims of profiling and that their Charter rights were violated.

He says he wants to see changes within the SPVM.

“When a situation is recognized by the court, when you are condemned in the court, when the court grants the action, I hope the SPVM will have the reflection and also change its [policy on street checks] because the effect of this policy is racial profiling,” he said.

He says the ruling could create jurisprudence and an opening for similar class actions in other Canadian cities.

In August 2019, a Quebec Superior Court judge greenlighted the class action against the City of Montreal on behalf of racialized citizens who allege they were unfairly arrested, detained, and racially profiled by police between mid-August 2017 and January 2019. 

According to Tuesday’s ruling, the amount of time covered will be considerably shorter — roughly a six-month period running between July 11, 2018, and Jan. 11, 2019. The judge also rejected a request for exemplary damages.

Lamontagne says it’s a victory for him.

“Not only for me, for all the visible minorities that has been stopped by the police for nothing,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2024.