The Supreme Court of Canada is hearing a case Monday about whether it’s constitutional for police to make a random traffic stop without reasonable suspicion the driver has committed an offence.
The decision by the country’s top court would have profound implications on policing in Canada.
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 racial profiling exists and that it’s a reality that weighs heavily on Black people.
The Quebec government appealed the ruling, arguing it deprived police of an important tool to stop crime.
But the Court of Appeal upheld Yergeau’s decision in 2024 and gave the provincial government six months to make the necessary changes to the Highway Safety Code.
The Supreme Court is hearing arguments and being 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.
The high court ruled in the R. v. Ladouceur decision that random stops were the only way to determine whether drivers are properly licensed, whether a vehicle’s seatbelts work and whether a driver is impaired. But Yergeau wrote it was time for the justice system to declare that the power to stop vehicles at random violates certain constitutional rights, and is obsolete and inoperable.
