Supreme Court to hear appeal of Quebec ruling that invalidated random police stops

The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear a case about whether it’s constitutional for police to make a random traffic stop without reasonable suspicion the driver has committed an offence.

Canada’s highest court announced Thursday it has granted the Quebec government leave to appeal a lower court decision that said random stops lead to racial profiling.

The case involves Joseph-Christopher Luamba, a Montrealer of Haitian descent who said he had been stopped by police nearly a dozen times without reason, including several times when he was behind the wheel. None of the stops resulted in a ticket.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Michel Yergeau sided with Luamba in October 2022, saying that racial profiling exists and that it’s a reality that weighs heavily on Black people.

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The Quebec government appealed the ruling, arguing that it deprived police of an important tool to stop crime, but the Court of Appeal upheld Yergeau’s decision.

The Supreme Court will be asked to weigh in on whether stopping drivers with no apparent reason violates the Charter, and whether the Quebec judges made an error when they overturned a 1990 Supreme Court decision that upheld the practice of random stops.