Probe launched after women claim bylaw officer racially profiled them

Two Black park-goers say official asked them for ID but not others nearby

Two Black women say a white city of Toronto bylaw officer racially profiled them Tuesday — an allegation that has sparked a third-party investigation and was dubbed “extremely disturbing” by Mayor John Tory. A five-minute, 13-second video posted to Instagram on Tuesday shows the women accusing the uniformed bylaw officer of asking for their identification but not those of other non-Black people in the same area of Centennial Park in Etobicoke. In the video, the bylaw officer denies their allegations.

One of the women, identified only as Eva, told Global News the pair entered the park for a routine workout through an open gate, with other people around, but when they tried to leave the gate was locked so they climbed over it.

Eva told Global she and her friend Deborah were then approached by the bylaw officer. She said he told them: “If this was my home, I would be licensed to … shoot both of you guys right now.” She said she was shocked. He then asked for the Black women’s identification but not that of others nearby, she added.

In the video, one of the women tells the bylaw officer: “You have the audacity to say because we’re trespassing you can shoot us? Are you crazy?” The bylaw officer responds: “Again, I said no such thing,” to which she replies: “Are you serious?”

One woman says in the video: “These two Black women hopped over the fence, you asked us for identification. You did not ask them,” pointing to a young man and woman with a bag of soccer balls standing nearby.

She asks the young man if the bylaw officer asked him for identification. The man replies: “No, as soon as he hopped over he started talking” to the Black women in an area near a gate.

The bylaw officer, hands folded in front of him, repeatedly shakes his head and suggests they are free to leave, but he is going to write down their licence plate number.

“I don’t think there’s anything I can say that would help the conversation,” he says. City spokesperson Brad Ross first said Wednesday that the city’s municipal licensing and standards division would lead an investigation of the incident, with help from the people and equity office and the confronting anti-Black racism unit.

But city officials later decided to exclude the licensing department from the probe and hire an outside agency to lead it. The bylaw officer is a member of the licensing department.

Mayor John Tory told reporters: “I think it is very important when you have deeply concerning allegations like that, you do everything you can to ensure that the public is satisfied you are having an objective, independent investigation so there’s no suggestion that people are investigating themselves.”

Tory, who earlier called the women’s account “extremely disturbing,” said the city is looking for an appropriate independent agency to investigate.

Fifty-four of the city’s roughly 200 bylaw enforcement officers have received training in anti-Black racism awareness, while the department’s managers and supervisors heard a presentation last year.

The Star was unable to reach the bylaw officer for comment Wednesday.

Asked about the bylaw officer’s employment status, Tory said he’s prohibited from divulging personnel details but that “as of this moment, he is still employed by the city.”