Longueuil man takes police racial profiling claim to human rights commission

A Longueuil man saidhe has yet again been the victim of racial discrimination by the city's police force, and he's asking the human rights commission to put a stop to it.

Joel Debellefeuillefirstmade headlines three years ago, when a Longueuilmunicipal courtjudge tossed out a case against himafter a police officer testified he'd pulled Debellefeuille's vehicleover because he thoughtthe black man"could not be the driver"ashis last name didn't match his skin colour.

Two officers were sanctioned by the police ethics commission in connection with that incident.

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Debellefeuille saidhe has been stopped and ticketedagainby the police in what he calls another "driving while black" incident.

"It's frustrating, it's time-consuming, it's draining, it's costly," said the 40-year-old Debellefeuille, who addedhe's been stopped for no reason while driving his BMW about six times.

"Hopefully me repeating this over and over will finally sink in that there's a problem with their officers."

In the latest incident, Debellefeuille was returning to a hotel in Longueuil where his family was staying. Police approached him as he parked his car and gave him a ticket,claiming he had not beenwearing a seatbelt.

He saidwhen he looked more closelyat the $126 ticket, he saw itwas for driving with a passenger under 16 who wasn't wearing a seatbelt.Debellefeuille insists he had, in fact, beenwearing his belt and was alone in the car.

Longueuil police get cross-cultural training

The Centre for Research Action on Race Relations (CRARR) has taken up his case, and it's filing a complaint with the Quebec human rights commission.

Since 2006, the Longueuil police have taken steps to address profiling on its force, and since 2011, all officers receive training on racial profiling.

But Fo Niemi, CRARR's executive director, wants to know howofficers are trained and evaluated.

"Theirplanlooks good on paper, but we don't know what they have done," Niemi said. "We will look at the possibility of asking for an audit of the police department, so we see how it deals with racial profiling."

Longueuil police Capt. Nancy Colagiacomo said the forcewill not tolerate discriminatory behaviour from its officers.

If peoplefeeldiscriminated against, they are free to file a complaint with the police ethics board, she said.