MONTREAL — Racial profiling is a systemic problem in the Montreal police force and profiling victims deserve compensation, a Quebec Superior Court judge ruled on Tuesday in a class-action lawsuit.
"The City of Montreal is responsible for racial profiling committed by its police officers in the exercise of their duties and is required to reimburse damages suffered by the members ," Justice Dominique Poulin wrote in a judgment.
The lead plaintiff in the case was Alexandre Lamontagne, who was stopped by Montreal police while leaving an Old Montreal bar in 2017, pinned to the ground, handcuffed and taken to the station. He was issued three statements of offence and charged with obstructing police work and assaulting a police officer, but most proceedings against him were eventually dropped.
"The court also finds that the city is itself at fault, in that it contributes to the racial profiling caused by its arrest procedures," the ruling said, adding that members of racialized groups are over-represented in police stops, and that"the plausible explanation for this disparity is the racial profiling that characterizes many arrests."
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