THE MESSAGE:
Carding, or street checks, is the controversial practice of random and arbitrary stops of citizens who weren’t suspected of any wrongdoing. Their detailed information is then stored in a police database. It has been widely criticized as racist, with statistics showing it disproportionately targeted minorities and especially black men.
MIKE McCORMACK
The head of Toronto’s police union, said, "putting a stop to carding is having an impact on the level of violence in the city. I think that it is having an impact on our ability to proactively investigate intelligence-led policing.”
The head of Toronto’s police union, said, "putting a stop to carding is having an impact on the level of violence in the city. I think that it is having an impact on our ability to proactively investigate intelligence-led policing.”
He believes that the restriction on 'carding' has resulted in an increase in the number of people carrying firearms." McCormack spoke publicly after two people were killed and three others wounded in a Chinatown shooting. He fears shootings in Toronto were becoming more brazen. “We need to have properly deployed police officers,” the union president said. “Until we can get out there and figure out the intelligence we need, the investigations that we need, I think the violence will continue.”
Homicides in Toronto are up 100 per cent from this time last year, and one veteran police investigator believes the reforms made to 'carding' has "definitely contributed” to that.
KIA SINGH
Is a law student and community activist who launched a constitutional challenge against carding, said that pro-carding statements are not true.
He complains, "I’ve been stopped by Toronto police numerous times, probably too many times for me to remember. A lot of them have been in a traffic situation where there’s no valid reason for the stop. It does concern me. I’ve never been arrested, yet I have a file this thick in a Toronto police database."
ANDRE MARTIN
Martin, a former Ontario ombudsman, ruled that carding is “wrong and illegal” and it violated the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms.
NEIL CORRIGAN
The Commander of Toronto Police’s 14 Division recalls a recent incident that took place in Kensington Market. It was an armed standoff .
At one end of an alley were three young punks, armed and dangerous. At the other end were two Toronto Police officers looking for three suspects fitting the description of those involved in an armed robbery.
The potential for blood, death, funerals and God knows what else was not only possible, but imminent on this event-filled day. “This is where the rubber meets the road,” said Corrigan, “Normally when the police arrive, in my experience, young people just run away,” he said.
This did not happen. Instead the trio stared down the police and started hurling insults challenging the officers. The thugs were ”yelling that the police have no power to do anything and there was nothing we could do,” “They had no fear of police and no understanding of the job we are sworn to do,” said Corrigan. “They were wrong.They just didn’t know it yet."
The teens had allegedly just robbed eight people at gunpoint outside a coffee shop. “One of the victims was a female who was poked in the ribs by a handgun. Others lost their wallets and cellphones, credit cards and cash. They were all traumatized.”
Corrigan went on to say, “One of the youths brushed up against a car in the alley and there was a loud clang. Right away my officers knew the suspect was armed with a heavy-duty gun.” The officers swooped in and arrested two of the youths, aged 15 and 16, who are now in custody; their loaded hand guns now are off the streets. The next day, police arrested the third suspect, 16 years of age, but are still looking for his gun.
The charges include “robbery with firearm, point firearm, use firearm in commission of offence, unauthorized possession of a firearm, possession of a restricted firearm with ammunition, possession of firearm contrary to prohibition order, possession of a weapon obtained by crime.” They also were given bail and probation condition breaches.
In a today's reality of banned carding and soft-on-crime courts, the young criminal doesn’t seem to have any fear of carrying loaded guns or using them. Corrigan deplores the defiance and the notion among armed youth that police officers are being handcuffed by politics and regulations.
YASIR NAQVI
Ontario has released its final regulations to ban police from randomly stopping people to perform street checks and collect personal information. The new rules were announced by Naqvi, Ontario's community safety and correctional services minister.
CLARITY SOUGHT
The regulations, which were first posted last October for public comment, set out what the government calls "clear and consistent rules" for voluntary police-public interactions.
Race is prohibited from being any part of a police officer's reason for attempting to collect someone's identifying information.
"Police officers cannot collect your information based on the way you look or the neighbourhood you live in," said Naqvi, who touted the rules as the "first right-based framework surrounding police interactions in Ontario's history."
Starting Jan. 1, 2017, police must tell people they have a right not to talk with them, and refusing to co-operate or walking away cannot then be used as reasons to compel information.
However, police can gather personal information during routine traffic stops, when someone is being arrested or detained, or when a search warrant is executed. The new rules will also not apply to police undercover operations.
CONTROVERSY REIGNS SUPREME
The Liberal government said it wanted to ban arbitrary stops after hearing from too many people of colour and aboriginal men and women, who said the Human Rights Code was being ignored by police who stopped them for no apparent reason.
Organizers of the Black Lives Matter protest outside Toronto police headquarters were quick to condemn the province’s new regulation on carding after it was announced.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association was also less than pleased, calling the latest version a “mixed bag.” “It is certainly not the end of the debate around carding because, on our read of it, carding can continue under these new regulations,” said Noa Mendelssohn Aviv, director of the CCLA’s equality program.
“Ontario chooses band-aid instead of banning carding,” the African Canadian Legal Clinic declared in a news release.
The police union also cast a dubious eye.
One protester believes that shoulder cameras must be deployed by police patrol units
One protester believes that shoulder cameras must be deployed by police patrol units
Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash said there’s no “single explanation” for the spike in homicides.
“I don’t intend this to sound flippant, but the people who have the best idea why it’s happening are the people who are doing it themselves, so I think it’s unwise to speculate about what might be motivating them.”
THE QUESTION:
IS THERE A SOLUTION THAT WILL PLEASE ALL?
THE LEMON:
This week's award goes to all the young gun-toting hoodlums and gang members whose criminal and disruptive behaviours affect the lives of all visible minorities and society in general.
THE QUOTE:
THE CLIP:
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