Called to testify in a lawsuit alleging systemic racial profiling, Montreal Police Brotherhood President Yves Francoeur strenuously rejected the prosecution’s claim that there were more than 17,000 unfounded police stops for the only year 2017.
“It’s without tail or head,” said Mr. Francoeur who was then in the witness box at the Montreal courthouse.
Montreal police officers would never accept such behavior from their colleagues, continued the man who has been president of the police force union since 2005.
But the police must be able to do their job, he insisted. He does not deny the existence of racial profiling, but insists: “criminal profiling” is necessary for the police to maintain the population’s sense of security, especially in the climate of urban violence in which Montrealers have lived since 2007.
“Nobody wants to do racial profiling,” he says while stressing that “there is a very thin line between racial profiling and criminal profiling. »
He was called to the stand by the Ligue des Noirs du Québec and Alexandre Lamontagne who brought this class action of 171 million dollars against the city of Montreal on behalf of all those who were victims of racial profiling at the hands of the agents of the Service de police de la ville de Montréal (SPVM) between 2017 and 2019.
Alexandre Lamontagne, a black man of Haitian descent, recounted on the first day of the trial on Wednesday, events that occurred in 2017 as he left a club and walked peacefully to his car. Two policemen stopped him, shouting and asking him why he was looking at them. “They rushed at me and threw me to the ground. The man says he hit his head and adds 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 the cell.
According to him, the police targeted him because of his race, because they did not shout at the other people present near the club – all white, he calmly told Judge Dominique Poulin, of the Superior Court. . He was then humiliated and forced to lie down in urine that soiled a cell in the detention center to have his handcuffs removed, he added. He came out in the early morning with three statements of offense in his hands and two counts (obstruction and assault) brought against him. These were subsequently abandoned.
In their written defence, the police claim to have acted in good faith and within the rules. They called on Mr. Lamontagne to offer him help, they say, because he seemed to be looking for something. But the man took offense and began to provoke and insult them, he argued in the document filed with the Court.
“It is a notorious fact that the Montreal police have been engaged in systemic racial profiling for decades and nothing effective has been done to stop what seems to be a scourge within this body. policeman,” reads the lawsuit.
Racial profiling exists everywhere in society, but “it always falls on the backs of the police,” lamented Mr. Francoeur.
For him the position of the fraternity is clear: “treat everyone with respect and there will be no problem. »
The trial is expected to last several more days. Judge Poulin will have to determine whether the police acted in a discriminatory manner towards Mr. Lamontagne and the members of the group named in the class action who were arrested, arrested and detained because they are not white.