'ERODED' TRUST
Mayor John Tory calls for an end to ‘carding’ by police.
Toronto Mayor John Tory announced his plans to permanently cancel carding on Sunday, answering a growing demand to bring an end to the controversial police practice.
Tory told a news conference that he will seek cancellation of the practice “once and for all” at the next Toronto Police Services Board meeting, on June 18.
The announcement marks a change of heart for the mayor, who has long insisted on reforming, rather than cancelling, the practice. Even last week, when a group of prominent Torontonians — including former Toronto mayors Barbara Hall, David Crombie, and John Sewell, city councillor Michael Thompson and former Chief Justice of Ontario Roy McMurtry — publicly criticized Tory’s position, the mayor stood firm.
But on Sunday, the mayor said that after hearing stories from those affected by carding, the issue built up in his conscience and he changed his mind during a cab ride to the Edmonton airport after “great personal reflection.”
“The issue of community engagements — or carding, as it has become known — has eroded public trust,” he said. “I thought we could make progress on reform, but that progress was elusive.”
The carding policy, which allowed Toronto police to routinely and randomly stop citizens and record personal information, was thought to disproportionately affect the city’s black community. The information would be kept on record for an undetermined amount of time and was easily available for police to access.
“There is no real way to fix a practice which has come to be regarded as illegitimate, disrespectful and hurtful. It was better to start over with a clean slate,” Tory said.
Former police Chief Bill Blair put the policy on hold in January. The Toronto Police Services Board amended the carding policy in April to prohibit officers from making stops based on “race, place of origin, age, colour, ethnic origin, gender identity or gender expression.”
Toronto police confirmed last week that the moratorium would stay in place until important changes could be made to the policy. Police spokesman Mark Pugash also said the collected information would be sequestered by the end of the month.
Mike Mc-Cormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, said he’s concerned about the mayor’s decision to call for an end to carding. He said an alternative hasn’t been spoken about, leaving police unclear about how to approach the public.
“What the hell do you want us to do when we’re out there and engaging the public?” McCormack asked. “This is not about a process of obtaining information and recording it. This is about police and public interactions, and now there’s no procedure or policy on how we’re going to do that.”
McCormack recognized that instances of racial profiling and police bias were occurring with carding, but said the police and Chief Mark Saunders were working to address that. He said he’s heard anecdotes about how the process affected future job searches and employment, but nobody has been able to prove it.
When done correctly, carding is a valuable investigative tool, McCormack said.
“If you had a series of break-and-enters between the hours of 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., and there was somebody on the street looking up a driveway between that time, would you not want a police officer to stop, engage and say: ‘Hey what are you doing here? What’s going on?’ Would you not want to identify that person? Is that not part of what we do in policing?”
Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti said he supports McCormack on carding and believes Tory’s decision to change his mind will put Torontonians at risk.
“I believe Mayor John Tory has put the police and certain communities at risk with his about-face, flip-flop on carding,” Mammoliti said in a press release. “Utilized correctly, carding helps police with their investigations so they can identify gang members and activity in areas where crime rates are higher.”
The debate on carding came to a head when freelance journalist Desmond Cole wrote an article called “The Skin I’m In,” in which he discussed the effects of being stopped more than 50 times by police in Toronto and southern Ontario.
Gordon Cressy, a former city councillor, was part of the group of civic leaders — Concerned Citizens to End Carding — that called for an end to the policy.
Cressy said Tor y ’s announcement is a good start toward accomplishing the goal.
“It’s a good beginning in the long fight for justice,” he said. “The mayor listened.”
Cressy noted, however, that Tory has only one vote on the Police Services Board and the ongoing challenge will be to convince the others to back the mayor so that public trust can begin to be regained.
“It’s not a cause for celebration yet,” he said. “We’ve got work to do. What you really want to see is that the momentum has turned forever.”