The Quebec police racial profiling case has dragged on for almost 10 years

When Emmanuel Abraham filed a racial profiling complaint against a Terrebonne, Quebec, police officer almost a decade ago, he never thought he would still be waiting to see if the officer would be punished.

“For me to wait 10 years is just crazy, you know?” said Abraham.

Rare are the cases of racial profiling that reach the Quebec Police Ethics Tribunal. And for those that do, like Abraham’s, critics say the lengthy and complex process discourages filing complaints in the first place.

In December 2014, Abraham, who is black, was driving in the Montreal suburb of Terrebonne when he was stopped by a police officer who asked him what he was doing there.

The officer, Const. Stéphanie Lemay-Terriault told him that she had checked his license plate, which indicated that the owner lived in Montreal North.

Abraham, who was 18 at the time, explained that his father lived in Terrebonne and that he returned to his mother in Montreal. He provided proof of insurance and his registration, but Lemay-Terriault gave him a ticket because, according to her, the registration was crumpled and illegible.

“I did my stop well, I didn’t speed, I spoke to him nicely,” Abraham said. “I immediately called my dad and we said, ‘Oh nonot this time.

Abraham successfully contested the ticket and filed a complaint with the Quebec police ethics commissioner. He felt like he was arrested because he is Black.

In 2020, the Police Ethics Tribunal, known in French as the Court administrative police ethicsruled the traffic stop was justified and did not believe it was racially motivated.

As far as Abraham knows, that’s where his affair ended.

He didn’t know the court’s decision was still under appeal until CBC News contacted him.

Abraham cannot believe that he was not informed of his own complaint.

“They have my address, they have my email, they have my name. They have everything on me,” Abraham said. “They can send me a paper every time she appeals. I haven’t received anything.”

“The battle can be long”

It is not uncommon for cases to take years to be processed through the complaints process.

But Fo Niemi, a civil rights activist who has defended the rights of victims of racial profiling, said he had never heard of a case that took as long to come to fruition as Abraham’s.

“This delay can be discouraging for a lot of people,” said Niemi, executive director of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR). “It can be a long battle, in part because police officers and police departments don’t like to lose, especially when it comes to a case of racial profiling.”

He does not think the Office of the Police Ethics Commissioner has enough resources to act quickly.

In Abraham’s case, the officer was cited for ethics violations — including racial profiling — but it took five years to get a hearing before the administrative court, which has the power to discipline officers.

At the time, random traffic stops were part of an officer’s discretion. According to court documents, Lemay-Terriault told the court she asked Abraham why he was in Terrebonne because he might have needed to update his address in his file. The administrative court accepted this explanation.

But the court’s decision was overturned by the Court of Quebec in 2021 following an appeal from the police ethics commissioner. The judge concluded that the officer stopped Abraham “consciously or unconsciously” because of his race or color.

Lemay-Terriault appealed the decision, but his appeal was rejected last month.

She has 30 days to appeal this rejection. If no notice of appeal is served within this time frame, the next step will be a penalty hearing date.

Rare discipline

In 2023, CBC News investigated how few complaints of racial profiling against the Quebec police results in discipline.

If a complaint is accepted by the police ethics commissioner, the priority is above all conciliation — and most cases are resolved this way.

Depending on the nature of the complaint, the commissioner can bypass conciliation and order an investigation to determine whether there have been ethical violations. This is generally reserved for serious allegations such as gross negligence or professional misconduct. If the investigation reveals that the officer committed ethical violations, then the matter is referred to court.

Between April 2017 and April 2022, only 11 complaints resulted in a hearing at the administrative court and only four of them resulted in disciplinary measures against a police officer.

According to the commissioner’s latest annual report, he received 248 complaints related to racism, discrimination or racial profiling in 2023-2024, an increase of 20 per cent compared to the previous year.

Since this CBC News investigation, the police ethics tribunal has heard a dozen complaints of racial profiling. Several of them concern complaints against the Terrebonne police, including that of Pierre-Marcel Monsantoa black resident who claims he was stopped by police 15 times while driving over a three-year period.

Forgotten complainants

If a police officer is found guilty of violating the police code of ethics, Niemi said he almost automatically appeals, which is the officer’s right.

But the initial complainant can get lost in the back and forth between the police and the courts.

“The citizen who is at the heart of the complaint is forgotten,” Niemi said. “The call here, whether from the police officer or the commission office, always takes place between the two. The citizen does not participate anywhere in the procedure.”

In an email, the Office of the Police Ethics Commissioner says it is aware of the time required to process complaints and says it strives to carry out its functions as diligently as possible.

Complainants are informed of legal proceedings, but are not informed of further action unless they specifically request it.

But Niemi said the province should try to find a way to better support complainants because the process can be long and grueling.

“That’s why we always tell people to hang in there, don’t give up, because that’s the only way to change the system,” he said.

Abraham said he couldn’t help but think the system was designed to favor and protect police officers.

Although the government and police force publicly say they have zero tolerance for racial profiling, he says the lengthy complaints process sends a different message.

“I just feel like they don’t care,” Abraham said.

He fears that the officer assigned to his case continued to work without any sanction. He also doesn’t know if she has received additional training, for example on unconscious bias.

Terrebonne police confirmed that Lemay-Terriault still works for them. They would not speak directly about his case, but said training to combat racial and social profiling was provided on an ongoing basis.

Lemay-Terriault’s lawyer, Me Frédéric Nadeau, did not wish to make any comment as long as the file is active.

“I’m just disappointed,” said Abraham, who is now 28 and works as a nurse. “Ten years is too much.”

---

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians – from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community – check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project that Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.