Pubdate: Fri, 10 Aug 2012
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Meghan Hurley

POLICE SUED OVER RACIAL PROFILING

Two young black men seek $95,000 each from officers, police board for 
traffic stop challenged by judge

Two young black men are suing the Ottawa Police Services Board and 
three officers after a 2010 traffic stop that a judge considered an 
instance of racial profiling.

Loik St-Louis, 25, and Jordan Noel, 23, were stopped on Rideau Street 
on Aug. 10, 2010.

The men were driving Noel's mother's 1997 Cadillac DeVille when they 
caught the attention of an officer because they were in a high crime 
area and wouldn't look at him as they drove past, according to a 
transcript of the proceedings.

The traffic stop resulted in charges against the two men after police 
discovered 13 grams of marijuana, five grams of crack cocaine and a 
drug scale in the car.

Those charges were withdrawn after Ontario Court Justice Dianne 
Nicholas commented during a June 23 preliminary hearing that the 
officer's decision to stop the Cadillac the two men were driving in 
seemed like racial profiling. "How many white women do you stop ... 
just because they are driving a car?" Nicholas asked Constable Robin 
Ferrie at the time.

Noel is suing the Ottawa Police Services Board for $95,000, plus 
legal costs. None of the allegations in the statement of claim to be 
filed in court Friday has been proven in court.

The statement of claim alleges that Noel was falsely arrested and 
falsely imprisoned, and accuses police of a "negligent investigation" 
and breach of charter rights.

The statement of claim also alleges that Noel has experienced 
emotional and psychological suffering, stress, anxiety, depression 
and sleeplessness, and has felt anxious and unsafe around police and 
distrusts of people in power since the traffic stop.

Three constables - Ferrie, Scott Handler and Nicolas Benard - and the 
Ottawa Police Services Board were named in a separate $95,000 lawsuit 
filed Aug. 3 on behalf of StLouis.

That statement of claim alleges that St-Louis was unlawfully detained 
after the traffic stop and was falsely arrested, and also accused 
police of a negligent investigation and a breach of charter rights.

"The actions of Const. Ferrie were callous and high-handed and taken 
without regard to the impact that they would have on Saint-Louis," 
the claim says. "The actions of Const. Ferrie in using racial 
profiling serve to undermine the public's confidence in police 
officers and the administration of justice."

After charges against Saint-Louis were dropped, officers with the 
Ottawa police drug unit have gone to his home, the statement of claim 
alleges. The drug unit officers have asked him for identification, 
which they have no authority to do, according to the statement.

"Saint-Louis no longer feels safe in the presence of police officers 
and instead feels threatened and harassed by their behaviour," the 
statement of claim says.

The Ottawa Police Service and Ottawa Police Services Board declined 
to comment because they have not yet received the statements of claim.
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