RACIAL PROFILING IN REPENTIGNY: SIX COMPLAINTS FILED FOR STANLEY JOSSIRAIN WITH THE QUEBEC HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

Montréal, March 11, 2019 — Sixteen police officers are now named as respondents in six separate complaints of racial profiling filed by CRARR on behalf of Stanley Jossirain, the young Black man who was regularly stopped, detained and fined in the last two years by the Repentigny Police.

Since going public last October to denounce the Repentigny Police’s mistreatment of himself and members of his family, which they consider to be racial harassment and profiling, CRARR has filed for Jossirain six civil rights complaints involving six incidents that took place between April 1st, 2018 and August 15, 2018.

These complaints, which have been filed with the Quebec Human Rights and the Youth Rights Commission, cite 16 police officers and the town of Repentigny as these officers’ employer. In these six complaints, CRARR claims a total of $200,000 in moral and punitive damages in addition to systemic remedies such as the adoption of a mandatory anti-discrimination policy by the municipal administration, the collection of race-based data in all police stops, and mandatory training of police managers and officers on antiracism.

In addition to these civil rights complaints, five complaints in police ethics will be filed this month over the same incidents, naming 13 police officers as respondents. CRARR will ask the Police Ethics Commissioner to treat these complaints in their totality, in order to take into consideration the systemic and recurrent natures of police conduct and practices directed at Jossirain.

CRARR encourages all of Repentigny’s Black residents and visitors to take rigorous action against racial profiling by filing civil rights and police ethics complaints if they believe that they have been a target of race discrimination. It is important to keep in mind the time limits for complaints, which range from 6 to 12 months since the incident giving rise to the complaint.

Other than Jossirain’s cases, the town of Repentigny is presently named as a Defendant in another racial profiling case before the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal. This case involves two then-12-year-old Black youths who were detained and mistreated in 2013 by Repentigny police officers (one of whom is also named as a respondent in a complaint filed for Jossirain). The Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission is seeking, on behalf of these two youths, $42,000 against the town and its three police officers.