A judge has just concluded that not only are the officers of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) at fault for committing racial profiling, but that the City of Montreal is as well. Racialized people who were victims of this between 2017 and 2019, roughly, will be able to obtain $2,500 to $5,000, or even more in some cases.
Superior Court Judge Dominique Poulin came to this conclusion at the end of a class action brought by the Black League and Alexandre Lamontagne, a Montrealer who was the victim of profiling.
In her decision, she wrote not only that the City of Montreal, as the employer of the police officers, is responsible for the “discriminatory and wrongful attacks”, but goes further: it “is itself at fault, in that it contributes to the racial profiling caused by its intervention procedure”. Because it asks its police officers to carry out prevention and to make arrests, “in a context of systemic racism” where their predictions are called upon to be based “on conscious and unconscious biases”, by applying practices likely to specifically target racialized people.
“The City cannot hide behind its police officers or make them bear the blame exclusively,” maintains Judge Poulin.
She states that Montreal violated the dignity of these racialized people who were arrested without reason, all in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, the magistrate considers that this is not an intentional fault; for this reason, she does not award the punitive damages that the applicants were claiming.
According to the president of the Ligue des Noirs, Max Stanley Bazin, the judgment rendered Tuesday is “a good step forward.” He is particularly pleased that the judge clearly stated that racial profiling within the SPVM is “systemic”: “It was objectively noted by a judge, with precise facts.”
Mr. Bazin, however, hopes that the judgment will lead to real changes in police practices, and not just to the payment of damages. The problem is not resolved, since cases of racial profiling still occur, he says. SPVM director Fady Dagher noted this as recently as last year, when he testified at this trial.
Judge Poulin heard all the evidence during the proceedings that took place in 2023. She concluded that racialized people — including Black, Arab, Latin American and Indigenous people — are subject to what she calls “marked over-interpellation.”
Alexandre Lamontagne, a black man who carried the class action on his shoulders, will receive compensation of $5,000 for what he suffered on August 14, 2017.
The man, who was then a hospital security guard, testified that he was leaving a club that night and was walking peacefully to his car when two police officers stopped him for no reason, shouting and asking him why he was looking at them. The judge found that he felt discriminated against and raised his voice. “They rushed towards me and threw me to the ground,” he continued. The man said he hit his head and added that one of the officers put his knee on the back of his neck. He had to receive medical treatment after spending the night in a cell.
The police officers claim to have acted in good faith and within the rules. They approached Mr. Lamontagne to offer him help, they say, because he seemed to be looking for something. But the man became offended and began to provoke and insult them, they maintained. Judge Poulin did not accept their version: Mr. Lamontagne was hailed “for no reason,” she ruled.
At the trial, Montreal acknowledged the existence of systemic biases, specifying that this does not mean that they are “systematic.” Profiling is far from being generalized, the city had argued.
In conclusion, Judge Poulin awards damages to all racialized people who were arrested without cause by Montreal police officers between August 2017 and January 2019 (for those who were injured) and between July 2018 and January 2019 (for those who were not injured).
The City of Montreal can appeal this judgment. Asked to react, it indicated that its Legal Affairs Department was analyzing the decision. “Out of respect for the judicial process which is not over, no comment will be made for the time being,” a spokesperson said.
At the time of writing, the SPVM and the Montreal Police Brotherhood had not responded to the interview requests from Duty.