By: Tiffany Mboyo
In recent years, the Toronto Police Service has been under fire for failing to report cases of racialized individuals to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) on time or not at all.
Police reform is served to be used as a way to improve police training, data collection and accountability as well as improving fractured relationships between marginalized communities, who tend to be victimized by police brutality. In the past years, the policing system in Toronto has demonstrated failure towards police reform and has been continuing police brutality.
In November 2015, the SIU announced that it was charging Const. Joseph Dropuljic with assault in the case of a man in North York, according to the Toronto Star. It is stated in the law that police forces are obligated to report cases of serious injury to the SIU. In this case, the SIU revealed it was only notified of the case nearly a year after of the alleged assault and not by the police.
In the same case of the North York man, the relevancy of police brutality is mentioned and described in the story. The 25 year-old man who remains anonymous due to fear of retaliations, says police officers dragged him out of a taxi cab, kneed him in the back and beat him. They also illegally searched and groped him and dragged him toward a police cruiser, he told reporters at a news conference Aug. 24, 2017.
“There are certain aspects of the way we police in Toronto and in Ontario that cannot be fixed,” said freelance journalist and activist Desmond Cole.
“When it comes to violence that the police is committing in our community, there’s no way to reform an institution that is as violent as the police.”
Ontario’s Liberal government announced in 2016 that the practice of police carding will be discarded across the province and execute new rules. Police jurisdictions are expected to follow the regulations, but in the case of a young black man named Dafonte Miller – it does not fail to prove that there are still problems regarding police racial profiling.
The 19-year-old from Whitby was chased down and beaten repeatedly with a steel pipe on Dec. 28, 2016, by an off-duty Toronto police officer Const. Michael Theriault and his brother Christian Theriault, a civilian. Miller suffered an eye injury, a broken nose, jaw and wrist. In addition, his case was not notified to the SIU six months later of the incident, by his lawyer.
Multiple reports from the former Ombudsman of Ontario says police continuously fail to cooperate with the SIU and contacting them to report incidents. In addition, they have investigated in the fact that the policing system does not hold themselves accountable of some cases they are involved in.
“I think that this a natural kind of result that gives the police too much power,” said Cole. “And creating a system where the police, police themselves.”
The Ombudsman for the province of Ontario acts as an advocate for the public in terms of dealing with complaints about Ontario government services, recommending improvements for governance and resolving individuals issues.
As a result of cases similar to the young man from North York and Miller, racialized communities have raised awareness of these issues and are retaliating against this injustice. The executive director of the African Canadian Legal Clinic, Margaret Parsons gave her insights regarding police brutality in the black community to the Star in August.
“The black community is fed up with racial profiling, we’re fed up with police brutality, we’re fed up with police shootings, and we’re fed up with police violence,” said Parsons.
In November, The Toronto District School Board voted to end the program due to students, staff and parents finding the presence of police intimidating or uncomfortable. More than 2,000 students said that they felt uncomfortable with a police presence. A group have activists succeeded to convince the Ontario government to permanently remove the presence of police officers in high schools, declaring it “a huge victory.”
“I applaud the incredible work of Black Lives Matter Toronto, Education Not Incarceration and other groups,” said Cole. “But we have so much more to do beyond that.”
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