A South Shore resident is calling for an investigation into Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission (CDPDJ) after accusing the watchdog of arbitrarily closing his complaint file about being racially profiled by the Longueuil police (SPAL).
Halisi Giddings, who is Black, says the CDPDJ’s action has denied him “effective protection against discrimination.”
According to Giddings, Longueuil police (SPAL) stopped and fined him without any grounds while he was driving home from a shopping centre in January 2024.
He filed a racial discrimination and profiling complaint with the CDPDJ against the police with the help of the non-profit civil rights organization Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) in March 2025.
CRARR had also filed complaints on behalf of multiple people.
According to CRARR, the CDPDJ closed the files of Giddings’ and those of three other Black men prematurely citing a recent court authorization of a class action filed by another victim of racial profiling against police services in the Greater Montreal area and the Sûreté du Québec.
“Although the individuals had until May 26 to opt out of the class action, the CDPDJ closed their files in late April,” CRARR said in a statement.
CRARR alleges that CDPDJ’s decision to close the complaints before the deadline denied the men the opportunity to choose between joining the class action and pursuing individual complaints.
Giddings, who eventually opted out of the class action, says he has been unable to reopen his complaint file with CDPDJ. Other men assisted by CRARR who were automatically included in the class action were also unsuccessful in getting their racial profiling complaints with the human rights watchdog.
“The (CDPDJ’s) decisions runs directly contrary to the interests of victims of ‘Driving While Black,’” Giddings said. “The (CDPDJ) is making it more difficult for victims of racial profiling like me to access justice and protection.”
CRARR says that CDPDJ’s considers the class action to automatically include all racialized persons who were subjected to a traffic stop without grounds, after May 22, 2019 by SQ or by one of several police departments, including Montreal, Laval, Quebec City, Longueuil, etc.
According to Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, the watchdog has to stop its proceedings if someone who has a complaint open with it also decides to launch a legal action.
CRARR says that it doesn’t apply to Giddings and the other men who had not initiated the class action.
“We are very concerned that the (CDPDJ) is using a class action lawsuit to shut its doors on complainants,” Fo Niemi, executive director of CRARR said. “Victims must have the option to choose between participating in a class action and retaining access to Quebec’s human rights protection system.”
