Toronto police should destroy historical street check data, provide greater transparency on officer discipline, and implement a distinct policy or procedure on racial profiling if it wants to work toward eradicating systemic anti-Black racism, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) says.
The recommendations are a handful of the 107 outlined in the OHRC’s final report and blueprint released Thursday, concluding its roughly six-year inquiry into anti-Black systemic racism at the Toronto Police Service (TPS).
“The report’s findings are clear,” said Patricia Deguire, OHRC commissioner.
“Systemic racial discrimination, racial profiling and anti-Black racism exists wherever Black people interact with Toronto police services,” she said.
The report details the results of the commission’s consultations with Black communities and police that identify gaps in policies and procedures at TPS and Toronto Police Service Board (TPSB).
The report summarizes the findings of the inquiry throughout the years (which you can find in its previous reports) and concluded that Black people are over-represented in all areas of Toronto policing in comparison to their share of the city’s population, including:
- Arbitrary street checks and stops — new research from an expert retained by the commission, Scot Wortley, shows Black people were over three times more likely to be subjected to a street check than white residents in 2008 to 2013.
- Enforcement actions, which are a measure of police contact that includes all incident reports resulting in charges or someone being released without charges.
- Arrests and charges.
- Use of force, including deadly force.
- Strip searches.
- Out-of-sight driving offences, such as driving without a licence, which can’t be observed by an officer and are only found when an officer initiates a traffic stop. Black people were 5.1 times more likely to be involved in an out-of-sight driving offence than their representation in the driving population.
The report also points to a survey conducted in 2019 — two years after the provincial regulation banning official street checks took effect — that found 40.4 per cent of Black respondents reported being stopped by police at least once in the previous two years, compared with 24.7 per cent of white respondents and 24.9 per cent of Asian respondents.
Toronto’s police chief, James Ramer, apologized to racialized communities after new data the force collected showed the communities were ‘disproportionately overpoliced.’
The OHRC says Black people need change and not another report indicating issues, after decades of research confirming systemic racism in the force. They want their recommendations to be legally binding by working with Toronto police on an agreement.
“The OHRC’s inquiry has confirmed that Black communities have little confidence in a process that does not result in accountability for the TPS and TPSB,” the commission wrote in its report.
“Legally binding measures are an important step in building confidence in policing and promoting a fundamental shift in practices and culture.”
Some of the recommendations also pertain to the province. Some of what OHRC is calling for the province to do:
- Develop and implement criteria that narrow the circumstances under which officers can approach or stop a person in a non-arrest scenario.
- Review and consider whether there are situations provincewide where front-line officers can be deployed with non-lethal weapons.
- Mandate race-based data collection, analysis, and reporting across the spectrum of officer activities.
- Develop standardized key performance indicators and assessment models related to efforts to address anti-Black racism in policing.
TPS welcomes report
Last summer, then-Interim Police Chief James Ramer acknowledged and apologized for systemic racism after the force’s analysis of 2020 use of force and strip search data confirmed what Black communities have been telling the TPS for years.
In a statement released Thursday morning, police say they welcome the report and “view it as an important contribution to the work already underway” in its efforts to address anti-Black racism.
“Both the Service and the Board are committed to learning, and to continuing this important work as we address the impacts of systemic racism,” said TPS Chief Myron Demkiw.
Beverly Bain of the No Pride In Policing Coalition addressed Toronto Police Chief James Ramer at a press conference about race-based data Wednesday.
“We readily accept that there is more and challenging work to be done, and we welcome the OHRC’s Report as an important resource for us as we continue this work. We will continue to work to identify how best to move forward within the spirit of the Report.”
The force says it will begin reviewing the recommendations in terms of “legal compliance, operational feasibility, and budgetary impact to determine if and how each can be implemented.”
“We acknowledge the great toll it takes to come forward, to relay these intense and powerful experiences and their harmful impacts, and then to do it again and again, when it feels like no one is listening,” said TPSB chair Ann Morgan.
“We say today, we are listening. We are hearing you, whether you are a member of Toronto’s Black communities, or a member of our Service. We acknowledge that, while we may already be on a path of change, more change is necessary, and it must be sustained, comprehensive, and deep.”
Report absent on abolishing policing: professor
Wortley, a professor of criminology and socio-legal studies at the University of Toronto, provided analysis for the report. He released a statement about the report’s potential to enact change:
“I am cautiously optimistic that, if adopted, the OHRC’s recommendations will help reduce systemic racism, improve public transparency and police oversight, and begin to foster a relationship of trust between the TPS and Toronto’s Black communities.”
Not all experts are convinced.
The report is a useful public reminder that anti-Black racism is still an ongoing problem, said Sam Tecle, an assistant professor of sociology at Toronto Metropolitan University. But, he says it falls short in exploring the concept of abolishing or replacing Toronto’s police institution.
“The Ontario Human Rights Commission is constantly giving us reports and evidence-based research that tells us this institution does not serve Black people,” he said.
“To what extent … can we trust police to fix itself?”
By highlighting the failures of Toronto police, Tecle says the report begs the question of what exactly the force does right by Black people.
“I don’t know any institution in society that is allowed to fail this many times and continue to exist without a drastic radical change,” he said. “At some point you wonder, should we save this institution?”
