Quebec suspends random traffic stops by police after court rejects extension request – Montreal [Video]

Quebec’s Public Security Department announced late Friday afternoon that most random traffic stops by police are suspended, days after the Court of Appeal affirmed that arbitrary road checks lead to racial profiling.

The new policy has been in place since April 1, the department said, the day Quebec’s Court of Appeal refused the government’s request to allow arbitrary police traffic stops to continue until the province’s legal challenge is heard before the Supreme Court.

In a decision rendered Monday, the Court of Appeal said the negative impacts of random stops on the Black community outweigh the benefits to the public of letting them continue. Instead, Court of Appeal Justice Stéphane Sansfaçon allowed only certain types of traffic stops to go ahead while the case makes its way through the Supreme Court legal process.

Permitting random police traffic stops, Sansfaçon wrote, “are likely to have negative impacts on Black people that …