Quebec police racial profiling case has dragged on for nearly 10 years

When Emmanuel Abraham filed a racial profiling complaint against a Terrebonne, Que., police officer nearly a decade ago, he never thought he'd still be waiting to see if the officer would be punished.

"For me to wait 10 years — that's just beyond crazy, you know?" said Abraham.

Few cases of racial profiling make it to Quebec's police ethics tribunal. And for those, like Abraham's, that do, critics say the lengthy, complex process discourages complaints from being made in the first place.

In December 2014, Abraham, who is Black, was driving in the Montreal suburb of Terrebonne when he was pulled over by a police officer who asked him what he was doing there.

The officer, Const. Stéphanie Lemay-Terriault, told him she'd checked his licence plate, which showed the owner lived in Montréal-Nord.

Abraham, who was 18 at the time, explained that his father lived in Terrebonne and he was returning to his mother's house in Montreal. He provided proof of insurance and his registration, but Lemay-Terriault gave him a ticket because she said the registration was crumpled and illegible.

"I made my stop right, I didn't speed, I talked to her nicely," said Abraham. "I called my father right away and we said, 'Ah non, not this time."'

Abraham successfully contested the ticket and made a complaint with Quebec's police ethics commissioner. He felt he'd been stopped because he is Black.

In 2020, the police ethics tribunal, known in French as the Tribunal administratif de déontologie policière, ruled the traffic stop was justified and did not believe it was racially motivated.

As far as Abraham knew, that's where his case ended.

He had no idea the tribunal's decision was still making its way through various appeals until CBC News contacted him.

Abraham can't believe he was not kept up-to-date about his own complaint.

"They have my address, they have my email, they have my name. They have everything on me," said Abraham. "They can send me a paper every time she appeals. I didn't get nothing."

It's not unusual for cases to take years to go through the complaint process.