South Shore man claims he was a victim of racial profiling

A South Shore man claims he was the victim of racial profiling at the hands of 10 officers with the Longueuil police department, a force that has faced accusations of systemic racism in the past.

Turell Daye, 27, said he was stopped by police unlawfully early in the morning on Sept. 14. He had taken the bus at 5:30 a.m. to meet a friend at his house so they could head to work together. He said his friend’s house was a short walk from the bus stop, which was also close to the Longueuil police station on Boulevard Curé-Poirier.

Daye says he was wearing headphones but then heard shuffling behind him. He turned around to see a group of police officers coming for him.

“I was immediately terrified and shouted, ‘Wow, what’s going on?’ They grabbed me, rushed me as a group and threw me up against the police car,” Daye said. “I was in fear of my life and screaming, hoping to attract the attention of passersby…. They frisked me, cut my work bag off my shoulder while shouting ‘stop resisting’ as they were bending and twisting my arms into handcuffs.”

Daye claims he kept asking officers why he was being stopped, but nobody told him anything. He was brought to the Longueuil police headquarters and put into a cell by five officers. He says they never arrested him. He spent at least two hours in the cell but says he was dismissed when asked if he could make a phone call.

He believes he was stopped by police solely because he is Black. He said he heard police saying they were investigating the vandalism of police cars.

“I was left in a cell and ignored for two hours and I had no idea what was happening to me. I was shouting in protest. I was told I was not a priority for them and I would just have to wait,” he said. “I was in a cell without being placed under arrest, read my rights, processed and still at that point no explanation as to why I had been snatched off the street while on the way to work.”

Daye says when he was finally released later that morning, he was presented with fines worth $747 for walking on a road, swearing at a police officer and spitting on the sidewalk. It’s more than he makes in a week as a furniture installer.

Daye says he returned to the station later that day with his father, inquiring as to why he was stopped in the first place. He said police insisted on keeping his work duffel bag full of tools as part of their investigation. Later that night police called him telling him he could pick up the bag.

Daye says he has not returned to work since the incident and has been left traumatized and unnerved by what happened.

“It’s devastating. I had always hoped this would not happen. We prepare them but you hope it would not happen,” his mother Francine Auclair said. “He is traumatized. He is not sleeping. They literally kidnapped him and then roughed him up.”

The family turned to the Red Coalition for help. It’s an advocacy and lobby group that fights against racial injustice and racial profiling. The organization plans on filing a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal and the Police Ethics Commission in the next few weeks.

The Longueuil police department told Global News in a statement that it could not comment directly on the case.

“We are very sensitive and attentive to their concerns,” the statement read. “However, the case file regarding the events is still under investigation. Several verifications and validations are still ongoing. For this reason we will not be able to comment.”

The Longueuil police department has faced accusations of racial profiling in the past.

Joel DeBellefeuille, the executive director of the Red Coalition, said he was pulled over by police a dozen times over 15 years. Police followed him as he was dropping his child off at daycare in 2012. Because of that, he was awarded $12,00o in damages.

In 2020 Quebec’s Human Rights Tribunal ordered the city to adopt a policy on racial profiling that included training officers and publishing race-based data on people stopped by police.

DeBellefeuille doesn’t believe much has changed.

“When will the police in this province understand there are real repercussions, real victims who are faced with irreversible damage that scars them for life?” he said.

Daye’s mother says she is disappointed by what happened to her son, and worried about his emotional well-being. She says she’s crushed that racial profiling continues to happen.

“I don’t see any changes, I just don’t. That is not just with police, that is with corporations, everything,” she said. “I can guarantee you, if my son was white walking down the street, this would not have happened. I am almost willing to bet.”