Article content

The Quebec Human Rights Commission has recommended Concordia University and a security firm pay a total of $33,000 in damages to a woman who alleges she was expelled from the campus because she is black and campus security guards assumed she was homeless.

Chantal Lapointe, a community activist of Haitian origin in her 50s, had been doing some paperwork at the library at Concordia’s downtown campus on the afternoon of July 9, 2013. She left the library, rolling a small suitcase and carrying two other bags. She says she was heading through the underground passageways toward a pharmacy on Ste-Catherine St. when she was stopped by Concordia security guards near the entrance to Concordia’s Engineering-Visual Arts building.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Commission recommends Concordia, security firm pay woman $33,000 in social profiling case Back to video

They asked her for identification, and when she asked why she was being stopped while others were allowed to pass, the security guards called police. The police officers then asked Lapointe to leave the building. Believing she was the victim of racial and social profiling, she filed a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission.