Founded in 1983 - United for Diversity and Racial Equality

QUEBEC POLICE ETHICS TRIBUNAL TO HEAR CRARR-ASSISTED CASES OF POLICE MISCONDUCT FILED BY BLACK MONTREALERS


Montreal, April 12, 2010 --- Starting this week, the Police Ethics Committee will hold hearings into many cases of police misconduct filed by Black Montrealers with CRARR's assistance in the last three years.

The Committee is an independent administrative tribunal created under the Police Act to adjudicate cases brought by the independent Police Ethics Commissioner against police officers whose conduct violates the Quebec Code of Police Ethics. If it finds a police officer’s conduct contrary to the Code, the Committee can impose sanctions ranging from a note in the file to suspension without pay and dismissal. However, all Committee’s decisions involving a sanction are automatically appealed by the police officer concerned to the Quebec Court, a provincial court. All hearings into the cases listed below will be held at the Committee’s office located at 500, René-Lévesque Blvd. West (except one case which will be heard in Quebec City). The hearings are public.

April 13 to 16, 2010
Racial Profiling and Abusive Arrest in Laval
Hearing into a police ethics complaint filed in 2008 by a young Black man assisted by CRARR against two police officers of the City of Laval, north of Montreal. The two officers tailed the man's car as he was driving home; after he parked his car in his garage, they went into his garage to inspect the car. When he came out of his house to enquire, they detained and arrested him, and eventually charged him with a Highway Safety Code offense (a $438 ticket). The Police Ethics Commissioner ruled that the officers abused their powers to illegally arrest the youth, used excessive force and acted in a racially discriminatory manner. A civil rights complaint has also been filed by CRARR against the City and the two officers. NOTE: This can be a precedent-setting case of racial profiling for the police ethics system, as the first and only case that has been ruled on by the Police Ethics Committee was in 2006.





April 13 to 16, 2010
Abusive Arrest and Excessive Force in Cote des Neiges
In Winter 2008, a young Black man was shopping with his mother in the Plaza Cote des Neiges, located in one of Montreal’s most multicultural districts, and was intercepted by two police officers. One officer questioned him and then used excessive force to arrest him; he then charged the youth with criminal offenses. The Police Ethics Commissioner ruled that the officer abused his power to illegally arrest the youth and used excessive force, while rejecting the racial element of the complaint. A civil rights complaint has also been filed by CRARR against the City and the officer.





April 22 to 23, 2010
Racial Profiling and Abusive Fine in downtown Montreal
Two Black brothers drove downtown in a Mercedes on a Saturday afternoon in the Fall of 2007 and were tailed by a police vehicle for several blocks. When they parked their car to go shopping, the police car parallel-parked next to them; when the brothers came over to enquire if something was wrong, they were fined each for $37 for walking on the street. The Police Ethics Commissioner ruled that the officers abused their powers, among other charges. A civil rights complaint has also been filed by CRARR against the City and the two officers.
NOTE: One of the officers was already the subject of a police ethics sanction in a 2005 case launched by CRARR on behalf of a Black Concordia university student, who was stopped and violently detained in a barbershop in the St-Laurent borough. This same officer is also the subject of a third civil rights complaint for racial profiling and abusive detention of another young Black man driving downtown with his white girlfriend in broad daylight.

May 10 and 11, 2010
Abusive Arrest, Use of Force and Negligent Use of Firearm
In February 2009, a young Black male health care technology specialist was driving on the freeway near Quebec City in broad daylight when he was stopped by a police officer and ordered at gunpoint to come out of his car and lie down on the road. The case turned out to be one of mistaken identity, as the police was looking for a Black male suspect whose physical description was vague. The Police Ethics Commissioner ruled that the officer abused his power to arrest the driver and used force and his weapon without due care. This case will be heard in Quebec City.

May 13 and 19, 2010
Abusive Arrest, Excessive Use of Force, Negligent Conduct and Refusal to Provide Information on Police Ethics Process
The complaint involves mistreatment and excessive use of force on the part of three police officers in the arrest of a Black-Asian couple's 12-year old son in front of his home, in the early evening, in the Notre Dame De Grace district of Montreal. The boy was thrown to the ground and handcuffed after complying with a police officer and offering no resistance. The boy was then led away in a police car and released a couple of minutes later, a block from his home. When the boy’s mother and his brother-in-law went to the police station to enquire about ways to file a complaint against the officers, one police officer on duty refused to provide information. The Police Ethics Commissioner at first dismissed the complaint, siding with the police officers' version of events. CRARR assisted the parents in filing for a review of the decision with the Police Ethics Committee, which eventually reversed the Commissioner's decision and resulted not only in the citation of the three officers, but also an additional investigation into the subsequent complaint related to one officer's refusal to provide information on the police ethics complaint process. A civil rights complaint has also been filed by CRARR against the officers and the City of Montreal.


For more information into the Police Ethics Committee and its hearings: http://www.deontologie-policiere.gouv.qc.ca/index.php?id=2