The Law of Racial Profiling

Authors

Terry Skolnik, Arizona State University, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Jeanne Mayrand-Thibert
Fernando Belton, Belton Avocats

Document Type

Special Symposium on Policing, Racial Profiling, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Abstract

Racial profiling is one of the most enduring problems in policing. Yet it remains largely under-theorized, which generates important theoretical and practical implications. Racial profiling tends to be construed as an arbitrary detention rather than a form of unconstitutional discrimination. For this reason, the section 15 Charter right to equality plays little to no role in most leading cases on racial profiling. The legal framework that governs racial profiling lacks clarity and can be applied inconsistently. And the remedial landscape associated with racial profiling claims has evolved minimally. This article advances a novel approach to racial profiling that addresses these shortfalls. It demonstrates why racial profiling is wrongful primarily because it embodies discrimination that violates the section 15 Charter right to equality, and secondarily, infringes liberty or privacy interests, and in so doing, breaches other constitutional rights. It offers a simplified legal framework for how courts can better approach racial profiling in constitutional criminal procedure. Drawing on the republican theory of freedom (or republicanism), it shows why racial profiling results in domination—meaning vulnerability to unchecked threats of interference— that courts fail to control. In doing so, it deepens our theoretical understanding of racial profiling and its connection to equality and liberty. The concluding parts of this article contend that courts can incorporate two innovative remedies that can better prevent and address racial profiling: structural injunctions and constitutional settlement agreements. Ultimately, this article offers a new path forward for how racial profiling can be approached in a manner that better safeguards individuals’ fundamental rights and interests.

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. "The Law of Racial Profiling." Osgoode Hall Law Journal 62.1 (2025) : 365-416.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.4103
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol62/iss1/9

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. Nathan JS Gorham, “Police Discretion, Racial Profiling and Articulable Cause” (2004) 49 Crim LQ 50 at 60-61; Luamba c Procureur général du Québec, 2022 QCCS 3866 at para 153 [Luamba QCCS].

5. David M Tanovich, “Using the Charter to Stop Racial Profiling: The Development of an Equality-Based Conception of Arbitrary Detention” (2002) 40 Osgoode Hall LJ 145 at 168, DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.1446.

6. Steven Penney, “Driving While Innocent: Curbing the Excesses the ‘Traffic Stop’ Power” (2019) 24 Can Crim L Rev 339 at 341.

7. David Tanovich, “The Charter of Whiteness: Twenty-Five Years of Maintaining Racial Injustice in the Canadian Criminal Justice System” (2008) 40 SCLR 655 at 673, DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2563-8505.1128 [Tanovich, “The Charter of Whiteness”]. It is unclear whether roving traffic stops will continue to be constitutionally valid. This article was written following a Court of Appeal of Quebec decision that cast aside the 1990 Supreme Court of Canada decision that upheld the validity of the roving traffic stop police power. See Procureur général du Québec c Luamba, 2024 QCCA 1387 [Luamba QCCA]; R v Ladouceur, 1990 CanLII 108 (SCC) [Ladouceur]. This article expands on the Luamba decision’s significance below.

8. Sujit Choudhry & Kent Roach, “Racial and Ethnic Profiling: Statutory Discretion, Constitutional Remedies, and Democratic Accountability” (2003) 41 Osgoode Hall LJ 1 at 6, DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.1429; Terry Skolnik, “Rééquilibrer le rôle de la Cour suprême du Canada en procédure criminelle” (2022) 67 McGill LJ 259 at 278-84, DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1098443ar [Skolnik, “Rééquilibrer le rôle de la Cour suprême”]; Kent Roach, “Remedies for Discriminatory Profiling” in Kent Roach & Robert Sharpe, eds, Taking Remedies Seriously (Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, 2010) at 402, 404 [Roach, “Remedies for Discriminatory Profiling”].

9. Roach, “Remedies for Discriminatory Profiling,” supra note 8 at 402, 404.

10. David Tanovich, The Colour of Justice: Policing Race in Canada (UBC Press, 2006) at 130 [Tanovich, The Colour of Justice]; Danardo S Jones, “Lifting the Judicial Embargo on Race-Based Charter Litigation: A Comment on R. v. Le” (2019) 67 Crim LQ 42 at 42-43; David M Tanovich, “E-Racing Racial Profiling” (2004) 41 Alta L Rev 905 at 929-30, DOI: https://doi.org/10.29173/alr1313 [Tanovich, “E-Racing Racial Profiling”]; Gorham, supra note 4 at 61; Terry Skolnik, “Expanding Equality” (2024) 47 Dal LJ 195 at 197 [Skolnik, “Expanding Equality”]. Exceptionally, courts do recognize that racial profiling violates the s 15 right to equality. See e.g. Luamba QCCA, supra note 7; R v Neyazi, 2014 ONSC 6838 at para 205 [Neyazi]; Elmardy v Toronto Police Services Board, 2017 ONSC 2074 at para 23; R v Douglas-Hodgson, 2023 ONSC 6769 at para 91 [Douglas-Hodgson].

11. See Part II(C), below.

12. See generally Skolnik, “Expanding Equality,” supra note 10 at 217-18.

13. See generally Skolnik, “Rééquilibrer le rôle de la Cour suprême,” supra note 8 at 273-84.

14. Ibid.

15. See Parts II and III, below.

16. See Part II(C), below.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid.

20. See Part V(A), below.

21. Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government (Oxford University Press, 1999) at 51, 66, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/0198296428.003.0001 [Pettit, Republicanism]; Philip Pettit, On the People’s Terms: A Republican Theory and Model of Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2012) at 7, 46, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139017428 [Pettit, On the People’s Terms]; Philip Pettit, Just Freedom: A Moral Compass for a Complex World (WW Norton, 2014) at 4-7; Christian Nadeau, “Republicanism” in Gerald Gaust, Fred D’Agostino & Ryan Muldoon, eds, The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy (Routledge, 2012) at 254; Fabian Schuppert, Freedom, Recognition and Non-Domination: A Republican Theory of (Global) Justice (Springer, 2014) at 27-29, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6806-2; Terry Skolnik, “Freedom and Access to Housing: Three Conceptions” (2018) 35 Windsor YB Access Just 226 at 228, DOI: https://doi.org/10.22329/wyaj.v35i0.5690.

22. Pettit, On the People’s Terms, supra note 21 at 7; Philip Pettit, “The General Will, the Common Good, and a Democracy of Standards” in Yiftah Elazar & Geneviève Rousselière, eds, Republicanism and the Future of Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2019) at 14-16, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108630153.

23. Frank Lovett, “Non-Domination” in David Schmidtz & Carmen Pavel, eds, The Oxford Handbook of Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2018) at 112, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199989423.001.0001 [Lovett, “Non-Domination”]. See also Arthur Ripstein, Force and Freedom: Kant’s Legal and Political Philosophy (Harvard University Press, 2009) at 42-43, DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674054516.

24. See Lovett, “Non-Domination,” supra note 23. See also Cécile Laborde, “Republicanism” in Michael Freeden & Marc Stears, eds, The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies (Oxford University Press, 2013) at 519, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199585977.013.0029.

25. Marie Garrau & Cécile Laborde, “Relational Equality, Non-Domination, and Vulnerability” in Carina Fourie et al, eds, Social Equality: What it Means to Be Equal (Oxford University Press, 2014) at 50-52, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199331109.001.0001.

26. Eric J Miller, “The Warren Court’s Regulatory Revolution in Criminal Procedure” (2010) 43 Conn L Rev 1 at 65, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1575356 (drawing a connection between discriminatory policing and domination); Terry Skolnik, Homelessness, Liberty, and Property (Cambridge University Press, 2024) at 103-105, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009392631 [Skolnik, Homelessness, Liberty, and Property].

27. See Part IV, below. See also Matthew Rosati, “Freedom from Domination: The Republican Revival” (2000) 26 Phil & Soc Criticism 83 at 85, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/019145370002600306.

28. See Parts IV(B) and V(B), below. On remedial limitations, see generally Skolnik, “Rééquilibrer le rôle de la Cour suprême,” supra note 8 at 273-84.

29. See Part IV(B), below.

30. For a discussion of the access to justice concerns and remedial inapplicability in the context of racial profiling, see Terry Skolnik & Fernando Belton, “Luamba et la fin des interceptions routières aléatoires” (2023) 101 Can Bar Rev 671 at 690-94.

31. Parts IV(B) and V(B), below.

32. For an overview of the uses of structural injunctions as remedies, see Russell L Weaver, “The Rise and Decline of Structural Remedies” (2004) 41 San Diego L Rev 1617 at 1617-23. For an example of the use of a constitutional settlement agreement as a remedy, see Good v Toronto Police Services Board, 2020 ONSC 6332 [Good 2020].

33. See e.g. Terry Skolnik, “Ancillary Police Powers” (2021) 99 Can B Rev 429 at 436-39 [Skolnik, “Ancillary Police Powers”]. See also The Honourable Michael H Tulloch, Report of The Independent Street Checks Review (Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 2018) at 43-44 [“Tulloch Report”].

34. Scot Wortley & Lysandra Marshall, Bias-Free Policing: The Kingston Data Collection Project: Final Results (The Kingston Data Collection Project, 2005) at 20, online: qspace.library.queensu.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/9831977f-6af1-43e9-9017-f00f9f664ffc/content [perma.cc/U2V6-DBAA] (noting “Odds Ratios, by Type of Stop and Race, City of Kingston Census Benchmark (Merged Data)”).

35. Lorne Foster, Les Jacobs & Bobby Siu, Race Data and Traffic Stops in Ottawa, 2013-2015: A Report on Ottawa and the Police Districts (Ottawa Police Service, 2016) at 3-4, online: www.researchgate.net/publication/344906617_Final_OPS_OTTAWA_REPORT_-_2016EN [perma.cc/9AA3-PL34].

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid at 3-4.

38. Ibid at 18.

39. Chief of Police, Ottawa Police Service, 10-Year Traffic Stop Data Collection Report (Ottawa Police Service Board, 2024), online: pub-ottawa.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=188293 [perma.cc/DK7U-9LSQ].

40. Ibid at 5. See also Jenna Legge, “Decade-Long Study Shows Racial Disparities in Ottawa Traffic Stops,” CBC News (23 June 2024), online: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/decade-long-study-shows-racial-disparities-in-ottawa-traffic-stops-1.7238620 [perma.cc/SEK4-YQC2].

41. Scot Wortley, Halifax, Nova Scotia: Street Checks Report (Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, 2019) at 40, online (pdf): humanrights.novascotia.ca/sites/default/files/editor-uploads/halifax_street_checks_report_march_2019_0.pdf [perma.cc/6C2C-UE87].

42. Ibid.

43. Ibid.

44. “Tulloch Report,” supra note 33 at xi, xiv.

45. Ibid at 43-44.

46. Victor Armony, Mariam Hassaoui & Massimiliano Mulone, Les interpellations policières à la lumière des identités racisées des personnes interpellées. Analyse des données du Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) et élaboration d’indicateurs de suivi en matière de profilage racial: Rapport final (Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal , 2019), online (pdf): spvm.qc.ca/upload/Rapport_Armony-Hassaoui-Mulone.pdf [perma.cc/2WE8-39P2].

47. Ibid at 10.

48. Ibid.

49. Ibid at 11.

50. Scot Wortley & Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, “The Usual Suspects: Police Stop and Search Practices in Canada” (2011) 21 Policing & Soc’y 395 at 398, DOI: doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2011.610198 [Wortley & Owusu-Bempah, “The Usual Suspects”]. Note that other scholars purport to examine disparate “stop and search” rates, but the research does not clearly differentiate between police stops on the one hand, and police stops that result in searches on the other. See e.g. Yunliang Meng, Sulaimon Giwa & Uzo Anucha, “Is There Racial Discrimination in Police Stop-and-Searches of Black Youth? A Toronto Case Study” (2015) 7 Can J Family & Youth 115 at 125, DOI: doi.org/10.29173/cjfy24301; Yunliang Meng, “Profiling Minorities: Police Stop and Search Practices in Toronto, Canada” (2017) 11 Human Geographies 5 at 12-18, DOI: doi.org/10.5719/hgeo.2017.111.1; Scot Wortley & Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, “Race, Police Stops, and Perceptions of Anti-Black Police Discrimination in Toronto, Canada over a Quarter Century” (2022) 45 Policing 570 at 577-78, DOI: doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-11-2021-0157. On US statistics for stop and search disparities, see Floyd et al v New York (City of) et al, 959 F Supp (2d) 540 (SDNY 2013) at 559-60 [Floyd]; Henry F Fradella, Weston J Morrow & Michael D White, “An Empirical Analysis of the Racial/Ethnic and Sex Differences in NYPD Stop-and-Frisk Practices” (2021) 21 Nevada LJ 1151 at 1162-63; David Rudovsky & David A Harris, “Terry Stops and Frisks: The Troubling Use of Common Sense in a World of Empirical Data” (2018) 79 Ohio St LJ 501 at 532.

51. Wortley & Owusu-Bempah, “The Usual Suspects,” supra note 50 at 398.

52. Steven Hayle, Scot Wortley & Julian Tanner, “Race, Street Life, and Policing: Implications for Racial Profiling” (2016) 58 Can J Crim & Corr 322 at 328-30, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3138/cjccj.2014.E32.

53. Ibid at 332.

54. Ibid.

55. Ontario Human Rights Commission, From Impact to Action: Final report into anti-Black racism by the Toronto Police Service (Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2024) at ch 5 [OHRC, Impact to Action].

56. Skolnik, “Expanding Equality,” supra note 10 at 215-17.

57. See e.g. Foster, Jacobs & Siu, supra note 35 at 2-3, 18-19; Armony, Hassaoui & Mulone, supra note 46 at 10-11; Wortley & Marshall, supra note 34 at 20.

58. Supra note 57 and the accompanying text.

59. See generally John Burchill et al, Ancillary Police Powers in Canada: A Critical Reassessment (UBC Press, 2024) at ch 5.

60. See e.g. Foster, Jacobs & Siu, supra note 35 at 2-3, 18-19; Wortley, supra note 41 at 40.

61. To be clear, some studies have reported that white persons report that they are subject to some proactive police encounters more frequently than Black persons. See e.g. Hayle, Wortley & Tanner, supra note 52 at 332 (18% of white high school students report being stopped by the police in contrast to 13.3% of Black high school students).

62. Frank Baumgartner, Derek Epp & Kelsey Shoub, Suspect Citizens: What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tell Us About Policing and Race (Cambridge University Press, 2018) at 65-66, 68-69, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108553599 (highlighting that Black persons are disproportionately stopped by the police in North Carolina); Charles Epp et al, Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship (University of Chicago Press, 2014) at 71-72; Floyd, supra note 50 at 559-60; Ben Bowling & Coretta Phillips, “Disproportionate and Discriminatory: Reviewing the Evidence on Police Stop and Search” (2007) 70 Mod L Rev 936 at 944, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2007.00671.x.

63. Amber A Hawk, “The Dangers of Racial Profiling” (2002-2003) 2 Law & Soc’y Rev UCSB 35 at 41.

64. Jeffrey Fagan, “No Runs, Few Hits, and Many Errors: Street Stops, Bias, and Proactive Policing” (2022) 68 UCLA L Rev 1584 at 1584, 1598, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4052926.

65. Ibid at 1666; Ben Bowling & Leanne Weber, “Stop and Search in Global Context: An Overview” (2011) 21 Policing & Soc’y 480 at 483, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2011.618735.

66. Kevin Roach et al, “At the Intersection: Race, Gender, and Discretion in Police Traffic Stop Outcomes” (2022) 7 J Race Ethnicity & Pol 239 at 242, 256-57, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2020.35; L Song Richardson, “Police Efficiency and the Fourth Amendment” (2012) 87 Ind LJ 1143 at 1145. Note that other studies suggest that hit rates are slightly higher for Black persons than white persons. However, the authors also observe that hit rates may be comparable between both populations. See Nicola Persico & Petra E Todd, “The Hit Rates Test for Racial Bias in Motor‐Vehicle Searches” (2008) 25 Justice Q 37 at 47, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07418820701717201.

67. Floyd, supra note 50 at 558-59.

68. Ibid.

69. Ibid.

70. Ibid.

71. Ibid.

72. Ibid.

73. Roach et al, supra note 66 at 242, 256.

74. Jack Glaser, Suspect Race: Causes and Consequences of Racial Profiling (Oxford University Press, 2014) at 36-37, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195370409.001.0001.

75. Ibid.

76. Ibid.

77. Ibid.

78. For an overview of these arguments, see R v Le, 2019 SCC 34 at paras 93-95 [Le]; Luamba QCCS, supra note 4 at paras 49-50, 445, 822; Ontario Human Rights Commission, Under Suspicion: Research and Consultation Report on Racial Profiling (Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2017) at 40 [OHRC, Under Suspicion]; Skolnik, “Ancillary Police Powers,” supra note 33 at 438-42; Skolnik & Belton, supra note 30 at 685-89; Skolnik, “Rééquilibrer le rôle de la Cour suprême,” supra note 8 at 289-90.

79. Cato T Laurencin & Joanne M Walker, “Racial Profiling Is a Public Health and Health Disparities Issue” (2020) 7 J Racial & Ethnic Health Disparities 393 at 395.

80. OHRC, Under Suspicion, supra note 78 at 40.

81. Tino Plümecke, Claudia S Wilopo & Tarek Naguib, “Effects of Racial Profiling: The Subjectivation of Discriminatory Police Practices” (2023) 46 Ethnic & Racial Studies 811 at 813, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2022.2077124; Natalie Slopen, Tené T Lewis & David R Williams, “Discrimination and Sleep: A Systematic Review” (2016) 18 Sleep Medicine 88 at 89-92, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2015.01.012.

82. Annabelle Lever, “Why Racial Profiling Is Hard to Justify: A Response to Risse and Zeckhauser” (2005) 33 Phil & Pub Affairs 94 at 106, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1088-4963.2005.00026.x; Michael Gentithes, “Suspicionless Witness Stops: The New Racial Profiling” (2020) 55 Harv CR-CLL Rev 491 at 518-19, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3420816.

83. Plümecke, Wilopo & Naguib, supra note 81 at 819.

84. Wortley, supra note 41 at 36.

85. Ibid.

86. OHRC, Under Suspicion, supra note 78 at 40; Charles R Epp, Steven Maynard-Moody & Donald Haider-Markel, “Beyond Profiling: The Institutional Sources of Racial Disparities in Policing” (2016) 77 Pub Admin Rev 168 at 169-70, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12702.

87. Kevin L Nadal, Kristin C Davidoff & Neil Allicock, “Perceptions of Police, Racial Profiling, and Psychological Outcomes: A Mixed Methodological Study” (2017) 73 J Soc Issues 808 at 809-10, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12249.

88. Tom R Tyler, Jonathan Jackson & Avital Mentovich, “The Consequences of Being an Object of Suspicion: Potential Pitfalls of Proactive Police Contact” (2015) 12 J Empirical Legal Stud 602 at 615-16, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.12086.

89. Dennis P Rosenbaum et al, “Attitudes toward the Police: The Effects of Direct and Vicarious Experience” (2005) 8 Police Q 343 at 354-61, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611104271085; Scot Wortley & Akwasi Owusu-Bempa, “Unequal Before the Law: Immigrant and Racial Minority Perceptions of the Canadian Criminal Justice System” (2009) 10 Int Migration & Integration 447 at 449, 463, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-009-0108-x.

90. Ronald Weitzer & Steven A Tuch, “Racially Biased Policing: Determinants of Citizen Perceptions” (2005) 83 Soc Forces 1009 at 1026, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2005.0050; Jonathan Intravia, Andrew J Thompson & Justin T Pickett, “Net Legitimacy: Internet and Social Media Exposure and Attitudes toward the Police” (2020) 40 Sociological Spectrum 58 at 72, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02732173.2020.1720554; Andrew J Baranauskas, “News Media and Public Perceptions of Police Misconduct: Does Racial Empathy Matter?” (2023) 36 Crim Justice Studies 331 at 336-37, 345, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1478601X.2023.2233675; Monica C Bell, “Police Reform and the Dismantling of Legal Estrangement” (2017) 126 Yale LJ 2054 at 2108.

91. Wesley G Skogan, “Asymmetry in the Impact of Encounters with Police” (2006) 16 Policing & Soc’y 99 at 100, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10439460600662098.

92. Ibid. See also Wesley G Skogan, “Assessing Asymmetry: The Life Course of a Research Project” (2012) 22 Policing & Soc’y 270 at 272, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2012.704035 [Skogan, “Assessing Asymmetry”].

93. Skogan, “Assessing Asymmetry,” supra note 92 at 272.

94. See e.g. Jean-Denis David, “Sources of Public Confidence in the Canadian Criminal Justice System” (2021) 63 Can J Crim & Corr 47 at 49-50, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3138/cjccj.2020-0059; Julian V Roberts, “Public Confidence in Criminal Justice in Canada: A Comparative and Contextual Analysis” (2007) 49 Can J Corr 153 at 154, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3138/RN84-2371-2482-MR06.

95. Beverley McLachlin, “Preserving Public Confidence in the Courts and the Legal Profession” (2003) 29 Man LJ 277 at 278 (noting the importance of public confidence in courts); William Poulos, “Public Confidence in the Administration of Justice” (2020) 68 Crim LQ 309 at 317; R v Lacasse, 2015 SCC 64 at para 12 (noting the connection between proportionate sentencing and public confidence in the justice system); Jonathan Avey & Bryton MP Moen, “Breaches, Bargains, and Exclusion of Evidence: Bringing the Administration of Justice into Disrepute” (2022) 59 Alta L Rev 701 at 705; Patrick McGuinty, “Section 24(2) of the Charter; Exploring the Role of Police Conduct in the Grant Analysis” (2018) 41 Man LJ 273 at 277-78 (discussing exclusion of evidence under s 24(2) of the Charter and public confidence in the administration of justice); R v Ahmad, 2020 SCC 11 at para 16 (discussing entrapment and public confidence in the administration of justice); R v Kokopenace, 2015 SCC 28 at paras 39, 190 (discussing jury formation and public confidence in the administration of justice); R v Chouhan, 2021 SCC 26 at paras 68-69 [Chouhan] (same); R v Jordan, 2016 SCC 27 at para 22 (discussing the s 11(b) Charter right to trial within a reasonable time and public confidence in the administration of justice); R v St-Cloud, 2015 SCC 27 at paras 1-2 [St-Cloud] (discussing bail and public confidence in the administration of justice).

96. Peter DeAngelis, “Racial Profiling and the Presumption of Innocence” (2014) 43 Netherlands J Leg Phil 43 at 43, 53-57; Jelani Jefferson Exum, “Presumed Punishable: Sentencing on the Streets and the Need to Protect Black Lives through a Reinvigoration of the Presumption of Innocence” (2021) 64 How LJ 301 at 303.

97. Skolnik & Belton, supra note 30 at 697.

98. See e.g. Glaser, supra note 74 at 124; Christian Briggs, “The Reasonableness of a Race-Based Suspicion: The Fourth Amendment and the Costs and Benefits of Racial Profiling in Immigration Enforcement” (2015) 88 S Cal L Rev 379 at 391.

99. Skolnik, “Ancillary Police Powers,” supra note 33 at 439; Tom R Tyler & Jeffrey Fagan, “Legitimacy and Cooperation: Why Do People Help the Police Fight Crime in Their Communities” (2008) 6 Ohio State J Crim L 231 at 233; Tom R Tyler, Phillip Atiba Goff & Robert J MacCoun, “The Impact of Psychological Science on Policing in the United States: Procedural Justice, Legitimacy, and Effective Law Enforcement” (2015) 16 Psychological Sci Pub Interest 75 at 83.

100. Tom Tyler & Jonathan Jackson, “Popular Legitimacy and the Exercise of Legal Authority: Motivating Compliance, Cooperation, and Engagement” (2014) 20 Psychol Pub Pol’y & L 78 at 79-80, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034514.

101. Keith Hogg, “Seeing Justice Done: Increasing Indigenous Representation on Canadian Juries” (2021) 26 Appeal 51 at 68.

102. Chris Rudnicki, “Implicit Bias and Racial Profiling: Why R. v. Dudhi’s Novel ‘Attitudinal Component’ Imposes an Unjustifiable Burden on Claimants” (2020) 68 Crim LQ 410 at 413-14.

103. 2003 CanLII 52142 (ONCA) [Brown]. See also Carol Tator & Frances Henry, Racial Profiling in Canada: Challenging the Myth of “a Few Bad Apples” (University of Toronto Press, 2006) at 89 (providing an overview of the decision).

104. Brown, supra note 103 at para 3. See generally Reem Bahdi, “No Exit: Racial Profiling and Canada’s War Against Terrorism” (2003) 41 Osgoode Hall LJ 293 at 306.

105. Brown, supra note 103 at para 3.

106. Ibid at para 4.

107. Ibid.

108. Ibid at para 6.

109. Ibid at para 5.

110. Ibid.

111. Ibid at para 10.

112. Ibid at para 42.

113. Ibid at para 46.

114. See David MacAlister, “The Law Governing Racial Profiling: Implications of Alternative Definitions of the Situation” (2011) 53 Can J Corr 95 at 98-99, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3138/cjccj.53.1.95.

115. Brown, supra note 103 at paras 7-8.

116. Ibid at paras 8, 44.

117. Ibid at para 10. See also James Singh Gill, “Permissibility of Colour and Racial Profiling” (2014) 5 Western J Legal Stud 1 at 4-5.

118. 2006 CanLII 37566 at para 89 (ONCA) [Peart].

119. Ibid at para 91. As explained more below, later decisions expand upon this concept and refer to it as the “contamination principle.”

120. Ibid. See also David M Tanovich, “Applying the Racial Profiling Correspondence Test” (2017) 64 Crim LQ 359 at 361-68 [Tanovich, “Racial Profiling Test”].

121. Tamar Hopkins, “Litigating Racial Profiling: The Use of Statistical Data” (2021) 37 L in Context 37 at 41, DOI: https://doi.org/10.26826/law-in-context.v37i2.155.

122. Peart, supra note 118 at para 110; Rudnicki, supra note 102 at 414. See also Terry Skolnik, “Policing in the Shadow of Legality: Pretext, Leveraging, and Investigation Cascades” (2023) 60 Osgoode Hall LJ 505 at 519, DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.3923 [Skolnik, “Policing in the Shadow of Legality”].

123. Peart, supra note 118 at para 114.

124. Le, supra note 78 at para 76.

125. Ibid. For definitions of racial profiling, see ibid at para 77; Quebec (Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse) v Bombardier Inc (Bombardier Aerospace Training Center), 2015 SCC 39 at para 33 [Bombardier]; Amar Khoday, “Ending the Erasure?: Writing Race into the Story of Psychological Detentions – Examining R. v. Le” (2021) 100 SCLR 165 at 178; OHRC, Under Suspicion, supra note 78 at 94.

126. See R v Sitladeen, 2021 ONCA 303 at paras 50-51; R v Dudhi, 2019 ONCA 665 at para 54 [Dudhi]; R v Uthayakumar, 2024 ONCJ 419 at para 29; R v Ali, 2023 SKCA 127 at para 52 [Ali].

127. Dudhi, supra note 126 at para 54; Ali, supra note 126 at para 89 (per the dissenting opinion). See also Rudnicki, supra note 102 at 415.

128. Dudhi, supra note 126 at para 55.

129. Ibid.

130. See e.g. Le, supra note 78 at para 76; Dudhi, supra note 126 at para 55.

131. Fernando Belton, “La preuve du profilage racial et son impact en droit criminel” in Développements récents en droit criminel (Éditions Yvon Blais, 2023) at 163-64.

132. Ali, supra note 126 at para 108, citing Peart, supra note 118 at para 91.

133. Rudnicki, supra note 102 at 412. See Brown v Regional Municipality of Durham Police Service Board, 1998 CanLII 7198 (ONCA); R v Storrey, 1990 CanLII 125 at 251-52 (SCC).

134. See e.g. Brown, supra note 103 at paras 10; Dudhi, supra note 126 at para 60; Sitladeen, supra note 126 at para 52.

135. See Le, supra note 78 at para 20; Steve Coughlan, “Arbitrary Detention: Whither — or Wither?: Section 9” (2008) 40 SCLR 147 at 154, DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2563-8505.1113; R v Grant, 2009 SCC 32 at paras 19-20 [Grant].

136. Douglas-Hodgson, supra note 10 at paras 134-39.

137. Ibid.

138. See supra note 78 at paras 76, 78; Khoday, supra note 125 at 178.

139. Supra note 78 at para 8.

140. Ibid at para 9.

141. Ibid.

142. Ibid at para 10.

143. Ibid at para 14.

144. Ibid.

145. Ibid.

146. Ibid at paras 28-30, 133.

147. Ibid at para 133. See also R v Mann, 2004 SCC 52 at para 45 [Mann]; Terry Skolnik, “The Suspicious Distinction between Reasonable Suspicion and Reasonable Grounds to Believe” (2016) 47 Ottawa L Rev 223 at 234, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2680362.

148. See supra note 78 at paras 74-97.

149. See generally Elsa Kaka, “The Supreme Court of Canada’s Justification of Charter Breaches and its Effect on Black and Indigenous Communities” (2020) 43 Man LJ 117 at 135-38, DOI: https://doi.org/10.29173/mlj1225.

150. A keyword search (ctrl+F) was used to identify the number of times that each of these words were used. See Le, supra note 78.

151. Ibid at paras 60, 90-91.

152. Ibid at paras 78-79.

153. Supra note 126 at para 60.

154. Ibid at paras 1, 31, 44, 56, 64. See also Sitladeen, supra note 126 at paras 32, 52-54; Ali, supra note 126 at paras 27-67. However, for the ONCA’s references to equality and discrimination in the context of racial profiling, see Dudhi, supra note 126 at para 65; Brown, supra note 103 at para 10; Peart, supra note 118 at paras 35-79 (although the decision mentions equality and discrimination extensively, it explores these notions in the context of an applicat