The Quebec Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Attorney General of Quebec and eight prison employees to pay a young black man $41,500 in moral and punitive damages in a decision deemed to be a major step forward in the recognition of racial profiling and the duty to accommodate in prisons, according to legal observers.
The ruling, the first to deal with racial profiling in a Quebec detention center, also issued public interest orders under Article 80 of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, compelling the provincial Ministry of Public Safety to develop and implement a strategic plan for discriminatory profiling and disseminate the plan to all correctional officers.
“Given the documented overrepresentation of black people in prisons, it is disturbing that prison staff are not more aware of the phenomenon of racial profiling and the prejudices and stereotypes that affect those who are subject to it,” said the Tribunal in Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse (Toussaint) c. Procureur général du Québec (Ministère de la Sécurité publique), 2023 QCTDP 21.