Quebec Human Rights Tribunal

By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

The Quebec Human Rights Tribunal recently ruled that there was no proof Montreal Black community member Eric Moses Gashirabake was subjected to racial profiling in a March 23, 2018 traffic stop in Côte St. Luc.

Gashirabake, at the time of the incident a CSL resident, was seeking $27,450, including $20,000 for the “income he allegedly lost between June and September 2020, as the [encounter] had such an impact on him that it led him to leave his job in April 2020 to move to Gatineau”; $2,450 for moving expenses and $5,000 in punitive damages “to discourage police officers from profiling in their interactions with racialized people.” A previous Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse ruling said the plaintiff could have his case heard before the Quebec human rights tribunal.

The defendants — the City of Montreal and the SPVM — argued that the tribunal lacked jurisdiction to rule on the case — this was rejected by Judge Magali Lewis. The city and the SPVM also said the plaintiff went through a red light when turning left from southbound Cavendish Blvd. in Côte St. Luc onto eastbound Côte St. Luc Road.

The judge ruled for the defendants stating that the constable “did not say the words Gashirabake claims he did; and that Gashirabake had not established that he suffered material and moral damages that would justify awarding him the amounts he was claiming.

“Gashirabake’s testimony does not offer sufficient guarantees of reliability to satisfy the criterion of the preponderance of evidence.”

According to the details of the case, Gashirabake calmly disputed the reason for the traffic stop, saying the light was green when he drove through the intersection, and handed the officer his driver’s license and vehicle registration. The constable gave the driver tickets for running the red light and not having proof of insurance in his possession. The plaintiff was determined in municipal court to be not guilty of the first infraction, but guilty of the second. The officer was not present in municipal court to testify.

In his original 2018 complaint, Gashirabake said the officer made discriminatory remarks and did not consider his explanations for the infractions that resulted in both tickets.

“I explained to him I had a new car and was waiting for the slip to be emailed to me, but he did not want to listen to me,” the plaintiff explained. “He said something in French along the line of ‘les des mensonges’ (sic)’ I am not fluent in French but I know he wanted to generalize that all black people tell lies!” The officer denied calling the plaintiff a liar.

But the court found that the plaintiff was inconsistent in his account of the incident, and “gave several versions, both as to when the [officer’s] remarks were allegedly made and their content.” For instance, Gashirabake claimed at one point that the officer spoke French, and then claimed the officer spoke English except when stating the allegedly discriminatory remark.

The court also ruled that the plaintiff stated at different times that the discriminatory remarks were made at the beginning, the middle and the end of the encounter; and also stated different versions of the allegedly discriminatory remarks.

“The Tribunal finds that throughout the period before he gave the tickets to Mr. Gashirabake, Officer Courteau was courteous and that there were no exchanges between them other than those concerning the reason for the interception and the request for Mr. Gashirabake’s papers.” n