Black Man Stopped by Police for Driving at ‘An Unusual Time’

Advocates in Montreal, Canada, are urging police to modify their policy on street checks after a 27-year-old Black man said an officer who stopped him commented it was an "unusual time to be driving,” CTV Montreal reported.

Speaking about the incident, Quebec anti-racism group Red Coalition referred to it as another example of "driving while Black,” a term often used to describe racist encounters Black people face while engaging in everyday activities.

The man, identified as Cyrus Senior, shared his experience, noting that he was driving a friend home after DJing at a prom when he was pulled over by the police at about 2:30 a.m. Senior recounted the guidelines he had learned as a young Black man, including keeping his hands visible and maintaining composure while interacting with the police.

"Do whatever is asked, no matter what it is, keep a smile on my face. Don't act, feel, or seem aggressive. That's always my main concern because I feel the nicer I am, the better chance it will go smoothly," he said.

Senior admitted he was puzzled when the officer told him he was pulled over because it was an "unusual time to be driving.” He has allegedly been stopped at least 10 times since he started driving. Although he didn't receive a ticket during this encounter, the officer questioned why he was driving a car registered to a woman, which Senior clarified belonged to his mother.

Senior's mother shared the experience on Facebook, causing it to go viral. "I want this to stop," Senior said, pointing out the prevalence of such incidents. "You hear it all the time in the United States and also in Canada, where one thing can lead to another, and then someone could not be coming home because of how someone felt or they felt someone was being aggressive."

Despite recent changes to the policy—including the implementation of a new street check policy in 2020—stops like this persist. In 2020, Montreal police were required to explain why they stopped someone they had pulled over. While the policy has been changed, the coalition believes more improvements can be made since the underlying ideology remains the same.

Data supports the coalition's claim of racial profiling, with police records showing that more people of color are stopped than those who don’t identify as part of a minority in Montreal. According to 2021 police data, Indigenous Montrealers were six times more likely to be stopped than white people in the city. The data also confirmed that Black people were more likely to be stopped, with Blacks being three and a half times more likely to be stopped than whites by the police.

This data was only a fraction of what was compiled in a recent report on street checks by the SPVM and racial profiling. The report concluded that there was no decrease in profiling even after the Montreal police created its first and only policy on street checks in 2020.

Other incidents also support the racial profiling claims, including a case in November 2022 when a man was wrongfully arrested and handcuffed when getting into his own car. According to CBC, two undercover officers arrested Dossa because they assumed he was stealing the vehicle.

"I don't want there to be a day where one of my close friends, cousins, or uncles don't come home to their family, their friends, because of something that led to a stop from how people look,” Senior said, emphasizing the importance of speaking up.

The Red Coalition is urging officials to change policies again, but as of now, Montreal’s police chief has no plans to do so, CTV Montreal reported. "The impact of this racial profiling is not only on the individual or the victim. It's on his family, his community, and also on the legitimacy of the police service as a whole," said Babineau.