Unanimous Court of Appeal Judgment Upholds Landmark Racial Profiling Decision in Quebec

MONTREAL — Yesterday, the Court of Appeal of Quebec released a landmark judgment upholding a major civil liberties victory in Attorney General of Quebec v. Luamba.

The Court’s ruling confirms an initial landmark 2022 Superior Court decision which declared that the police power to conduct arbitrary and suspicionless roadside stops was discriminatory and unconstitutional.

During the course of a six-week trial, the plaintiff Joseph-Christopher Luamba and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association argued that the police power was not only unnecessary to protect public safety, but that it represented a serious interference with individuals’ Charter-protected rights.

The Court agreed with Mr. Luamba and the CCLA, concluding that these stops were neither “random” nor a minor inconvenience. Rather, the evidence demonstrated that a vastly disproportionate number of drivers stopped pursuant to this power were black or racialized and that the arbitrary stops infringed on the freedom, dignity and safety, of the individuals thus racially profiled.

Agreeing with the trial judge, the Court of Appeal unanimously concluded that the existence of this power could no longer be justified in a free and democratic society.

In declaring the relevant provision of the Highway Safety Code unconstitutional, it departed from precedent set in the 1990 Supreme Court decision R. v. Ladouceur, and charts a new course for equality rights in Quebec and Canada.

CCLA is represented by our counsel Bruce Johnston, Lex Gill and Louis-Alexandre Hébert-Gosselin of Trudel Johnston & Lespérance.