Quebec will appeal the Superior Court’s decision against random police interceptions in connection with the Highway Safety Code.
The Minister of Public Security of Quebec, François Bonnardel, made the announcement Friday morning during a press conference in Montreal, alongside the Minister responsible for the Fight against Racism, Christopher Skeete.
The Minister of Public Security said he found it “unjustified to abolish” this section of the Code which is so useful to police services. However, he concedes that “there is a way to use it better”.
He specified that the police services needed this work tool to verify, for example, the validity of driving licenses and cases of drunk driving.
New measures
He assured that, on the other hand, measures would be taken to counter racial profiling, in particular through better training for police officers.
More specifically, Quebec undertakes to introduce new measures in the Police Act to allow the Minister to establish guidelines “so that the work of police officers is carried out in the absence of discrimination based on race, to impose continuous training and to modernize and make more accessible the processes in terms of police ethics”.
Similarly, Quebec will fund police services that are eager to develop “new best and innovative practices that will better combat possible situations of racial and social profiling”.
Minister Bonnardel also recalled other initiatives that had already been taken previously, such as the addition of 45 hours to the Police Techniques program concerning training during interventions with populations from cultural, ethnic and Aboriginal communities.
Quebec also intends to consult organizations to hear their point of view on the matter.
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