Document Type
Special Symposium on Policing, Racial Profiling, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Abstract
THIS VOLUME OF THE OSGOODE HALL LAW JOURNAL (OHLJ) contains two articles—and two replies—that explore racial profiling and the law. This academic exchange comes at a crucial moment. In Attorney General of Québec v Luamba (“Luamba”), the Court of Appeal of Quebec affirmed that the statutory police power to conduct roving traffic stops is unconstitutional because it results in arbitrary detentions and unconstitutional discrimination, neither of which were justifiable in a free and democratic society.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Citation Information
Skolnik, Terry; Mayrand-Thibert, Jeanne; and Belton, Fernando.
"Racial Profiling and the Rule of Law: A Reply."
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
62.1 (2025)
: 431-440.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.4105
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol62/iss1/11
EPUB version (e-reader software required)
References
1. Research professor, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University (ASU). Executive director of ASU's Academy for Justice. Associate professor (on leave) at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, Civil Law Section.
2. SJD student, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law.
3. Criminal defense lawyer at Belton Avocats and Executive Director of the Clinique juridique de Saint-Michel. He has taught the law of racial profiling at the University of Ottawa and at every law school in the province of Quebec. He also represents victims of racial profiling. We thank Anna Maria Konewka and Michelle Biddulph for comments or discussion on prior drafts, and François Tanguay-Renaud for discussions that helped shape our article and reply.
4. Procureur général du Québec c Luamba, 2024 QCCA 1387 at para 222; Terry Skolnik & Fernando Belton, "Luamba et la Fin des Interceptions Routières Aléatoires" (2023) 101 Can Bar Rev 671 at 679-85 (discussing the Luamba trial court decision); Terry Skolnik, Jeanne Mayrand-Thibert & Fernando Belton, "The Law of Racial Profiling" (2025) 62 Osgoode Hall LJ 365 at 386 (providing an overview of the Court of Appeal's conclusions).
5. See also Luamba c Procureur général du Québec, 2022 QCCS 3866 at paras 161-577 (providing an overview of this evidence) [Luamba (trial decision)].
6. François Tanguay-Renaud, "Doing Away with Racial Profiling in Policing Without Doing Away with the Rule of Law" (2025) 62 Osgoode Hall LJ 309 at 322.
7. Ibid. He also notes at 311-12: "the rule of law, the advancement of which is the very purpose of section 9."
8. Ibid at 322.
9. Ibid at 322-23.
10. Ibid at 323.
11. Ibid at 324.
12. R v Grant, 2009 SCC 32 at para 54 [Grant]. See Tanguay-Renaud, supra note 6 at 322, n 59.
13. Grant, supra note 12 at para 20.
14. Ibid; R v Le, 2019 SCC 34 at para 25 [Le]; R v Tim, 2022 SCC 12 at para 21 [Tim].
15. Grant, supra note 13 at paras 20-23.
16. Le, supra note 14 at para 25 (noting: "Section 9's prohibition of 'arbitrary detention' is meant to protect individual liberty against unjustified state interference"); Tim, supra note 14 at para 21 ("The purpose of s. 9, broadly stated, is to protect individual liberty from unjustified state interference").
17. Grant, supra note 13 at paras 54, 67, 72-74, 124, 133.
18. Le, supra note 14 at paras 115, 143, 152, 158, 165; Tim, supra note 14 at para 82; R v Lafrance, 2022 SCC 32 at paras 93, 98.
19. Grant, supra note 13 at paras 72-73; Le, supra note 14 at para 158.
20. Le, supra note 14 at para 165.
21. Ibid.
22. Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, s 24(2), Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, being Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (UK), 1982, c 11 [Charter].
23. See e.g. R v Robert Cameron, 2025 ONSC 2621 at paras 49-59 [Robert Cameron] (applying the s 24(2) exclusionary rule in the context of racial profiling).
24. Tanguay-Renaud, supra note 6 at 325-29.
25. Terry Skolnik, "Racial Profiling and the Perils of Ancillary Police Powers" (2021) 99 Can Bar Rev 429 at 455 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3721754; Terry Skolnik & Vanessa MacDonnell, "Policing Arbitrariness: Fleming v Ontario and the Ancillary Powers Doctrine" (2021) 100 SCLR 187 at 200-201. https://doi.org/10.60082/2563-8505.1417
26. R v Ali, 2023 SKCA 127 at paras 54-55 (noting that racial profiling must be proven on the balance of probabilities); R v Tutu, 2021 ONCA 805 at para 38 [Tutu] (noting that racial profiling claims require evidence and proper framing); R v Zaragoza, 2025 ONSC 2077 at para 104 [Zaragoza] (same).
27. Tutu, supra note 26 at para 38. https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.38.16.0026c
28. R v Sitladeen, 2021 ONCA 303 at para 43 [Sitladeen]; R v Brown, 2003 CanLII 52142 at para 44 (ONCA); Luamba (trial decision), supra note 5 at para 153.
29. See e.g. R v Alipourobati, 2025 ONCA 64 at paras 19-29 (rejecting a claim of racial profiling); R v Justin Dyer and Ivor Shawn Young, 2024 ONSC 4767 at paras 47-64 (same); R v Kamara, 2024 ONCJ 406 at paras 92-112 (same); R v Bell, 2024 ONCJ 692 at para 43 (same). https://doi.org/10.1190/tle43100692.1
30. See Grant, supra note 13 at paras 59, 72-86.
31. R v Zacharias, 2023 SCC 30 at paras 59, 94-97 [Zacharias].
32. Grant, supra note 13 at paras 59, 72-86. https://doi.org/10.2307/1086978
33. R v Collins, 1987 CanLII 84 at para 30 (SCC). See also R v Elawad, 2025 ONSC 1298 at para 195.
34. See R v Morgan, 2023 ONSC 6855 at para 92 ; R v Murray, 2025 ONSC 4127 at para 361.
35. Charter, supra note 22. Section 24(2) states: “Where, in proceedings under section (1), a court concludes that evidence was obtained in a manner that infringed or denied any rights or freedoms guaranteed by this Charter, the evidence shall be excluded if it is established that, having regard to all circumstances, the admission of it in the proceedings would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.”
36. Grant, supra note 13 at paras 64-65.
37. Ibid at para 59. See e.g. Robert Cameron, supra note 23 at paras 49-59.
38. See Ville de Québec c Niyokwizera, 2024 QCCM 72 at para 74.
39. Tanguay-Renaud, supra note 6 at 329-31.
40. Ibid at 331.
41. Ibid at 326-27.
42. Peart v Peel Regional Police Services, 2006 CanLII 37566 at para 135 (ONCA); Sitladeen, supra note 28 at para 67; R v Chenjelani, 2025 ONSC 2207 at para 28; R v Uthayakumar, 2024 ONCJ 419 at para 33.
43. Tanguay-Renaud, supra note 6 at 323.
44. Terry Skolnik, "Policing in the Shadow of Legality: Pretext, Leveraging, and Investigation Cascades" (2023) 60 Osgoode Hall LJ 505 at 517-18. https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.3923
45. Terry Skolnik, "Rééquilibrer le Rôle de la Cour Supreme de Canada en Procédure Criminelle" (2022) 67 McGill LJ 259 at 278. https://doi.org/10.7202/1098443ar
46. Skolnik & Belton, "Luamba et la Fin des Interceptions Routières Aléatoires," supra note 5 at 690-92.
47. Terry Skolnik, "Three Stages of Criminal Justice Remedies" (2024) 57 UBC L Rev 565 at 583.