Quebec's Court of Appeal rejects arbitrary police stops ahead of Supreme Court hearing

Quebec's Court of Appeal has refused the provincial government's request to allow arbitrary police traffic stops to continue until a legal challenge of the practice is heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.

In a decision rendered earlier this week, the province's high court said the negative impacts of random stops on racialized people outweigh the benefits to the general public of letting them continue.

Instead, Court of Appeal Justice Stéphane Sansfaçon allowed only certain types of traffic stops to go ahead while the case makes its way through the Supreme Court legal process.

Those include impaired driving checks during which police officers want a breathalyzer sample, or in situations when vehicles need to be pulled over by provincial roadside inspectors.

Last October, the Court of Appeal upheld a landmark 2022 lower court decision that said random traffic stops by police lead to racial profiling, and that gave the government six months to modify the Highway Safety Code.

In December, the province said it was taking the matter to the Supreme Court, and last month asked the Court of Appeal to extend the deadline to modify the highway code until the case is heard at the country's highest court.

In a statement Friday, the province's public security and justice ministers said Monday's Court of Appeal decision partially agrees with the government's position. They said the province believes that random stops are an essential tool for police work and public safety.

The initial ruling by the Quebec Superior Court in 2022 only affected random traffic stops and not structured police operations such as roadside checkpoints aimed at stopping drunk drivers.