Montreal judge accuses SPVM officers of racial and gender profiling

A Municipal Court judge has accused two Montreal police officers of racial and gender profiling, and dismissed all charges against a Montreal woman who was pulled over in November 2017.

"This police intervention has all the appearances of a fishing expedition and of an arbitrary detention motivated by racial or sexual profiling, or both at once," Judge Randall Richmond wrote in his ruling Thursday.

In November 2017, Vanessa Anna Baptiste was driving her father's car to Notre Dame Island, heading there to pick him up from the casino, with her male friend riding in the passenger seat.

As she drove along Papineau Avenue, she crossed paths with a Montreal police vehicle on the corner of Ste-Catherine Street. She continued northbound, toward the entrance of the Jacques Cartier Bridge, and watched as the police vehicle made a U-Turn and navigated around other cars, until it caught up with hers, court documents said.

According to the documents, the police then drove behind Baptiste's car and turned on their sirens about halfway across the bridge, signalling they were pulling her over.

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