Quebec’s Court of Appeal upheld a landmark 2022 decision on Wednesday that found a law permitting random traffic stops by police led to racial profiling.
The province’s high court agreed with a Superior Court ruling that said an article of the province’s Highway Safety Code that allows police to stop drivers without a reasonable suspicion that an offence has been committed is unconstitutional.
The Court of Appeal says in the unanimous decision that the law violates Charter rights, including freedom from arbitrary detention and equality rights.
Joseph-Christopher Luamba, a 22-year-old Black Montrealer who said he had been stopped by Quebec police nearly a dozen times without reason with none resulting in a ticket, was at the heart of the legal action.
Uncontested evidence on trial showed that most of these random stops mostly affected young Black drivers.