The City of Montreal has just been ordered to pay thousands of dollars to victims of racial profiling who were arrested without reason by officers of the Montreal Police Service (SPVM).
What you need to know
Targeted by a class action, the City of Montreal will have to pay $5,000 to each person who was a victim of racial profiling and arrested by SPVM police officers between 2017 and 2019.
There were nearly 40,000 arrests of racialized people during this period.
Indigenous people are six times more likely to be arrested than white people, black people are 3.5 times more likely, and Arab people are 2.6 times more likely, according to a 2023 report.
“It is undeniable that the phenomenon of racial profiling has been occurring within the SPVM for many years. Members of racialized groups are victims of it and are thus subject, without justification, to police interventions linked to their racial or ethnic affiliation,” states bluntly a Superior Court judgment, rendered Tuesday.
The Black League of Quebec led a class action against the City of Montreal so that each racialized person arrested without reason between 2017 and 2019 be compensated up to $5,000.
According to data provided by the City of Montreal as part of the trial, there were nearly 40,000 arrests of racialized people during this period.
One of the lawyers who led this battle, Jacky-Éric Salvant, estimates that between 10,000 and 30,000 victims of profiling could come forward following the judgment.
At the start of the class action, the Black League of Quebec estimated the amount of the lawsuit at $170 million. It particularly targeted people from the black, Arab, Latino and indigenous communities.
$5000 per person
Judge Dominique Poulin is ordering Montreal to pay $5,000 to each person “arrested without justification who was subjected to racial profiling,” and $2,500 to those arrested whose personal data was not recorded by the police.
Those who were also arrested and detained without reason will have to prove the moral and material damages they suffered, in order to receive the appropriate sum.
The parties will return to the judge to discuss the terms of payment of compensation.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante testified in this trial in February 2023.
The city acknowledged the existence of racial profiling within its police service, as well as the presence of systemic bias, but it claimed that the profiling was far from widespread, the judgment recalls.
Historical judgment
“The City contributes to the phenomenon of racial profiling by asking its police officers to carry out prevention and make arrests, in a context of systemic racism, where police predictions are necessarily based on conscious and unconscious biases, by applying practices likely to specifically target members of racialized groups,” wrote Judge Poulin in her decision, which is about a hundred pages long.
According to the Black League, this is a historic judgment.
“This judgment will make history because we are the first organization to sue a city for racial profiling in Quebec and we obtained a favorable judgment,” emphasizes the organization’s president, Max Stanley Bazin.
It would also be the first judgment in Canada to compensate victims of profiling, adds Mr.e Jacky-Éric Salvant, lawyer for Alexandre Lamontagne, the one who represents the victims in the class action.
A knee on the neck
Mr. Lamontagne, a black man, was stopped by police officers in August 2017 while he was simply walking on the sidewalk in Old Montreal, leaving a bar. “Hey, can I help you?” an officer allegedly shouted at him, for no reason, according to his testimony reported in the judgment.
Feeling attacked, Mr. Lamontagne had an altercation with the police officers and asked them to identify themselves. As tension mounted on both sides, the officers pinned the man to the ground, one of them put a knee on his neck and they handcuffed him, while three other police cars arrived as reinforcements.
Mr. Lamontagne spent the rest of the night in jail and received three tickets for making noise, continuing a prohibited act and failing to use the sidewalk, charges that were later dropped.
The police told a different version in court, but Judge Poulin did not accept it, relying in particular on video images.
Alexandre Lamontagne had to be treated for muscle spasms following the incident, in addition to feeling humiliated and denigrated. The judgment awards him $5,000 in compensation.
“It is a serious problem that those responsible for applying laws and regulations do not respect the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the charters,” notes Max Stanley Bazin, who expects significant changes from the City of Montreal following the judgment.
Greater risk for non-whites
Judge Poulin’s decision is based in large part on the testimony and report of expert Victor Armony on the subject of racial profiling at the SPVM.
Along with two other researchers, Mr. Armony studied the issue at the request of the police force, and his report, submitted in 2023, concluded that Indigenous people were six times more likely to be stopped than white people, black people 3.5 times more likely, and Arab people 2.6 times more likely.
Despite this observation, the head of the SPVM, Fady Dagher, refused to declare a moratorium on arrests, as recommended by the report.
“The City will continue to make unprecedented efforts to combat racial profiling. As the first administration to recognize the existence of systemic racism, we will continue to work, with all of our partners and public organizations in Montreal, so that every citizen feels safe and enjoys the same rights,” responded the office of Mayor Valérie Plante, in a written communication.
In response to the judgment, the League of Rights and Freedoms (LDL) points out that the police do not have the power in Quebec to make arrests under the law or the common law“Police arrests violate the rights and freedoms of those arrested and are a known and documented source of systemic racial and social profiling,” underlines Lynda Khelil, spokesperson for the LDL.
“The LDL urges the City of Montreal not to appeal this judgment and to follow up on it urgently, in particular by prohibiting SPVM police officers from making arrests, once and for all.”