The Human Rights Tribunal concludes that a black man arrested at the wheel of his luxury car was indeed the victim of racial profiling on the part of the Police Department of the City of Repentigny. Even if he will receive $8,000 in moral damages, François Ducas says he is disappointed with the judgment, deploring the impunity enjoyed by the police officers involved.
Posted at 5:24 p.m.
“It is very disappointing to see the Court insensitive to racism and the problem of racial profiling, confides François Ducas in a telephone interview with The Press. I found that the Court lacked rigor in its assessment because the three police officers involved got off without consequences. »
The Tribunal acknowledged it was racial profiling, but cleared the officers saying it was not their fault, but that of “unconscious bias”. It bothers me a bit. On the other hand, I am relieved that the court recognizes the existence of racial profiling in Repentigny.
Francois Ducas
The judgment made public on Wednesday by the Human Rights Tribunal recognizes that François Ducas “suffered a discriminatory attack on his right to the safeguard of his dignity” during a police intervention in 2017. The man had been intercepted while he was driving his BMW.
“The Court is convinced that the police officers would not have turned around to randomly intercept him if he had been white” and that they had “unconscious biases” towards a black man driving a luxury vehicle, we can read.
In a press release released Wednesday, the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse (CDPDJ) said it was “disappointed” that the judgment did not follow up on its request to the City of Repentigny to “endow itself with ‘an anti-profiling policy’ and to ‘proceed with the collection of data concerning the perceived or presumed racial affiliation of the people who are intercepted’.
A traumatic event
In December 2017, the teacher and father of Haitian origin leaves work at the wheel of his BMW when two police officers from the SPVR turn around to follow him and intercept him, in order to check his identity and check whether the vehicle belongs to him. Mr. Ducas had not committed any traffic offence.
The man, who claims to have been intercepted for no reason on many occasions in the past, refuses to comply and calls 911, convinced that it is racial profiling.
As he still refused to give his papers, the two policewomen and a sergeant who came to help handcuff him, put him under arrest, search him, to finally find his identity papers and his proof of insurance.
The teacher received two statements of offense a few days later: one for obstructing the action of a peace officer, the other for having insulted a peace officer.
Following this event, Mr. Ducas filed a complaint with the CDPDJ, which took the case to the Human Rights Tribunal.
The police intervention turned the life of the man who describes himself as a model citizen upside down. He suffered from insomnia for months and rarely leaves the house. Too anxious to drive, his wife has to drive most of the time.
The $8,000 awarded by the judge will not erase the damage suffered, says François Ducas. “They dehumanized me, he is indignant. There is no price for that. All I wanted was an apology. It would have relieved me greatly. »
“Serious” steps
In the wake of the judgment, the City of Repentigny wanted to emphasize in a written statement that the Court recognized the serious steps taken since 2018 with the Service de police de la Ville de Repentigny (SPVR) to counter racial profiling.
She claims to have invested “the necessary time and resources” with the SPVR, to “do things properly” and “make lasting changes happen”.
The City mentions in particular its action plan for a “Police service mobilized for its community”, launched in 2021 just after the publication of a damning report on racial profiling in Repentigny.
We learned that blacks are three times more likely to be arrested than whites. They constitute only 7% of the city’s population.
“Like anyone, police officers have conscious and unconscious biases. In the performance of their duties, it is essential to be aware of this so that each of their actions is free from any form of discrimination,” declared the City, which will not appeal the judgment.
“It’s up to those who live in Repentigny to continue the fight, I sold my house. I won’t have any more problems in Repentigny: I’m leaving,” says François Ducas.
Learn more
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- $8000
- Amount received by the victim, François Ducas, for moral damages