Alexandre Lamontagne

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is expected to testify today in a class-action lawsuit that claims the city hasn't acted to combat systemic racial profiling by its police officers.

For years, members of Montreal's black community have told stories about the discrimination they've allegedly suffered at the hands of the city police: A black lawyer in a BMW, repeatedly pulled over. A man checking his cell phone on the street, questioned and eventually arrested. Seemingly routine police interventions that escalate to violence and even death.

A Quebec Superior Court judge has authorized a class action lawsuit against the City of Montreal on behalf of citizens who allege they were unfairly arrested and racially profiled by the city's police.

Anastasia Marcelin, originally from Haiti, says she became an activist after witnessing how city police treated her three younger brothers in their Montreal North neighbourhood.