Blair vows police reforms
But Public Safety minister light on specifics, timelines
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says Canada’s justice system needs to change in light of the international protests for police reform.
Blair, speaking exclusively to National Post, previewed changes coming to civilian oversight of the RCMP; possible new requirements on how the RCMP tracks use-of-force incidents, and how his government will reduce the over-incarceration of Indigenous and Black people.
But at the same time, the minister was light on clear timelines on when his government would be moving on these issues.
Even on body cameras, which his government endorsed this week, Blair recognized that "with recent instances of police brutality, people have come to rely on for coming to a determination and judgment as to the appropriateness or inappropriateness of police conduct.”
The RCMP has run pilot projects and feasibility studies showing the technology around body cameras works.
The Privacy Commissioner has even offered guidance on how to implement the cameras effectively. However, the RCMP passed on adopting the cameras in 2015.
Protests began late last month in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd during an arrest by local police, but have since spread around the world.
Black Lives Matter protesters have called to de-fund police departments, given data showing police are significantly more likely to deploy force against Black people.
The RCMP, the single largest police in the country, maintains a database detailing every time its officers use force in the line of duty. They have consistently refused to release information from that database. The RCMP also confirmed the database does not collect the race or Indigenous identity of the citizens who were on the other end of the firearm, taser, pepper spray, or physical restraint.
“The lack of the collection of that data has led to a lack of information and understanding about a lot of the different causes of social injustice in our society,” Blair said.
“There is a real value in the appropriate and careful collection of race-based data.”
He offered no timelines as to when or whether he would require the RCMP to change its practices, but did acknowledge that “I’ve heard that very clearly, and I agree with that, quite frankly.”
Some police services, including the Toronto Police Service that Blair once ran, have aggressively employed random street checks, sometimes referred to as “carding,” which, data shows, disproportionately affects men of colour in the city.
A review of the RCMP’s own carding practices, by the force’s Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, has been ongoing since 2018. The commission’s budget is smaller than the review bodies for some municipal forces, while it will soon be expected to cover the Canadian Border Services Agency as well.
Even when it completes an investigation, it can only make non-binding recommendations to the force.
“If you want the public to have confidence in a complaint investigation and resolution system, it has to be timely, and it has to be transparent,” said Blair. While he hinted at more resources and an expanded mandate, he didn’t veer into specifics.
There is a real value in the appropriate and careful collection of race-based data.