By Canadian Press

Rights group wants other provinces to end random police stops banned by Quebec judge

Oct 26, 2022 | 10:45 AM

MONTREAL — The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is hailing a Quebec Superior Court decision banning random police stops and is calling on other provinces to end the practice without waiting to be taken to court. 

Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, the group’s executive director and general counsel, says individual police departments could also create policies ending random stops.

Justice Michel Yergeau ruled Tuesday that random traffic stops are unconstitutional on the grounds that they allow racial profiling — particularly of Black motorists.

The decision, which overturns rules established in a 1990 Supreme Court ruling, applies only in Quebec.

The province’s association of police chiefs association says in a statement today that the article of Quebec’s Highway Safety Code that was struck down is needed to ensure motorists respect the rules of the road.

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The CCLA had intervener status in the lawsuit brought by Joseph-Christopher Luamba, a 22-year-old Black Montrealer who said he had been stopped by police nearly a dozen times without reason.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2022.

The Canadian Press