The Canadian Civil Liberties Association applauds a Quebec Superior Court ruling outlawing arbitrary police stops and urges other governments to do the same immediately rather than waiting to be sued.
The executive director and general counsel of the organisation, Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, asserts that individual police departments might potentially establish regulations banning random stops.
On Tuesday, Justice Michel Yergeau issued a ruling declaring that random traffic stops are unlawful because they permit racial profiling, particularly of Black drivers.
MORE READING Police in Quebec are prohibited from conducting arbitrary traffic stops by the court.
The judgement, which invalidates guidelines established by a 1990 Supreme Court decision, only applies to Quebec.
The province’s association of police chiefs association says in a statement today that the article of Quebec’s Highway Safety Code that was struck down is needed to ensure motorists respect the rules of the road.
In the complaint filed by Joseph-Christopher Luamba, a 22-year-old Black Montrealer who claimed he had been stopped by police over a dozen times without cause, the CCLA was granted intervener status.
READ MORE: A trial on the use of racial profiling by Quebec police to stop cars at random has started.
Rights organisation wants other provinces to prohibit the arbitrary police stops that a Quebec judge has outlawed.
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