[URBAN NOTE] "Taking the ambiguity out of police carding"
Spacing Toronto's Idil Burale writes about carding in Toronto, and where it stands now.
On October 28th, Community Safety Minister Yasir Naqvi released a draft regulation to standardize police street checks in order “to ensure that those interactions are conducted without bias or discrimination, and done in a manner that promotes public confidence and keeps our communities safe.” This regulation seeks to establish a rights-based framework for policing and set out clear rules to govern that notoriously gray area in the Police Services Act: voluntary engagement between the public and police.
Since then, as if on cue, police chiefs and union heads from Hamilton to Toronto have engaged in a campaign of fear-mongering meant to alert us to the perils to public safety (i.e. that criminals would roam free) if the regulation passed. But what is it about the regulation that is causing such distress for the men and women we pay to protect our communities?
I, for one, am very happy to see the police engaging in this very important discussion (the draft regulation consultation period concludes next week). I think it’s valuable to hear their perspectives, given that, for quite a long time, the debate around street checks has been completely one-sided, with police only denying or downplaying any claim of wrongdoing. But I’m also most disappointed by the lack of substance that these senior officers and union leaders have added to the debate.
Now, let’s be honest: the main issue that police chiefs and association heads have with this draft regulation is the fact that it tells them that they will now have to give “rights notifications” to people they stop. While Section 9 of the Charter on Rights and Freedoms is pretty clear about our right not to be arbitrarily detained, the onus has always been on individuals to know their rights and when to assert them. It has too often seemed that police services resist the duty to inform people of their rights.
That dispute led to the stand-off between then-Chief Bil Blair and board chair Alok Mukherjee in 2014 during the negotiations of the Toronto Police Service Board’s policy on carding. The Province, it seems, followed lawyer Frank Addario’s recommendations to the board by emphasizing rights and placing the onus on police officers to inform those they stop for “voluntary” interactions that they have the right to walk away. The province contends that this is a balanced approach (which I can attest to, given the other glaring gaps in the draft) that allows police officers to continue proactive policing while also ensuring that basic rights are respected.
On October 28th, Community Safety Minister Yasir Naqvi released a draft regulation to standardize police street checks in order “to ensure that those interactions are conducted without bias or discrimination, and done in a manner that promotes public confidence and keeps our communities safe.” This regulation seeks to establish a rights-based framework for policing and set out clear rules to govern that notoriously gray area in the Police Services Act: voluntary engagement between the public and police.
Since then, as if on cue, police chiefs and union heads from Hamilton to Toronto have engaged in a campaign of fear-mongering meant to alert us to the perils to public safety (i.e. that criminals would roam free) if the regulation passed. But what is it about the regulation that is causing such distress for the men and women we pay to protect our communities?
I, for one, am very happy to see the police engaging in this very important discussion (the draft regulation consultation period concludes next week). I think it’s valuable to hear their perspectives, given that, for quite a long time, the debate around street checks has been completely one-sided, with police only denying or downplaying any claim of wrongdoing. But I’m also most disappointed by the lack of substance that these senior officers and union leaders have added to the debate.
Now, let’s be honest: the main issue that police chiefs and association heads have with this draft regulation is the fact that it tells them that they will now have to give “rights notifications” to people they stop. While Section 9 of the Charter on Rights and Freedoms is pretty clear about our right not to be arbitrarily detained, the onus has always been on individuals to know their rights and when to assert them. It has too often seemed that police services resist the duty to inform people of their rights.
That dispute led to the stand-off between then-Chief Bil Blair and board chair Alok Mukherjee in 2014 during the negotiations of the Toronto Police Service Board’s policy on carding. The Province, it seems, followed lawyer Frank Addario’s recommendations to the board by emphasizing rights and placing the onus on police officers to inform those they stop for “voluntary” interactions that they have the right to walk away. The province contends that this is a balanced approach (which I can attest to, given the other glaring gaps in the draft) that allows police officers to continue proactive policing while also ensuring that basic rights are respected.