The Supreme Court of Canada has heard a major case challenging the power of police to conduct arbitrary traffic stops in the face of mounting evidence of racial profiling. This week on Driving Law, Kyla Lee and Paul Doroshenko unpack what’s at stake — and what could finally change.
The case before the Court centres on repeated traffic stops of a Black driver who was not committing any offence, raising fundamental questions about how random stop powers are actually used in practice. While governments acknowledge that racial profiling exists, they continue to argue it is not systemic and can be addressed through individual Charter remedies.
Kyla and Paul discuss why that approach misses the reality of subconscious bias, the near impossibility of proving discrimination in isolated stops, and why systemic problems demand systemic solutions. They also examine how courts have historically justified these powers on highway safety grounds — and whether that justification still holds decades later.
The episode rounds out with a discussion of data-driven traffic enforcement tools, the proper role of police in road safety, and a familiar Ridiculous Driver of the Week involving yet another overpass strike in British Columbia. Stream Episode 437 for the full discussion.
