Bylaw officer accused of racial profiling
The city of Toronto “can do better” at stamping out anti-Black racism, says a woman who alleges a bylaw enforcement officer racially profiled her and a friend at Centennial Park.
“With everything that’s going on, both here and in the United States, we shouldn’t have to deal with this,” Deborah Ampong told the Star on Thursday.
Part of their confrontation Tuesday was recorded in a video Ampong and her friend Eva Amo-Mensah, who are both Black, later uploaded to Instagram.
In it, they accuse the bylaw officer, who is white, of asking for their identification but not those of white people nearby.
They also accuse him of saying that if they had trespassed on his property he could have shot them.
In the video, the bylaw officer denies the allegations. Ampong said she met AmoMensah for their weekly workout at Centennial Park in Etobicoke, and went through an open gate to a track area where people were exercising.
Some people started leaving and they realized the track area was supposed to be closed. “At this point it was only us and two other white teenagers on the track.
“We packed up our stuff, left, and when we got to the gate, we saw that it was locked and a bylaw officer was standing on the other side,” Ampong said.
“The two white teenagers hopped over the fence and left without the bylaw officer doing anything … When we hopped the fence, the officer approached us and said, ‘Did you know you two are trespassing?’ and ‘If this were my property, I could shoot you for this.’ ”
He then asked them for identification.
“We didn’t want to give them to him because he didn’t ask anyone else for IDs. Finally, he let us leave,” a shocked Ampong said.
But when they were driving out, he went to photograph their licence plate. That’s when they confronted him and started recording the video.
The Star has been unable to reach the bylaw officer for comment. His union, CUPE Local 79, said in a statement: “We are aware of the allegations made against a bylaw enforcement officer and will work with the City of Toronto to conduct a proper investigation.”
Mayor John Tory, who in his first term changed his stance on police carding after widespread criticism that the practice was racial profiling, speaks often of the need to stamp out racism and supported creation of a city Anti-Black Racism Unit.
Ampong told the Star that the city government obviously has more work to do. “The city can do better in my opinion,” she said.
“Everywhere we’re seeing people in a position of authority threatening Black people. That really shook us,” Ampong said, referring to the killing of George Floyd and the police response to protests that followed. “The city needs to make sure that doesn’t happen.”