Carding under fire
Re ‘Devastating, Unacceptable,’ Sept. 28 The practice of “carding” is a violation of human rights, pure and simple. To stop a young person without cause, ask their name and birthdate, where they live and where they are going, to demand the names of their friends or to search their belongings, these are violations of our most basic rights.
Ask a young person how it feels to be carded. It is often a demeaning and frightening experience and there is the added fear that a permanent police record is being created.
There is talk of reforming the carding system. But when you have a practice that is discriminatory and harmful, one that inherently violates rights, the answer is not to modify the practice but to end it. Agnes Samler, President, Defence for Children International, Toronto Metro Police randomly question and identify specific people in Toronto. It is called “carding.” This was also done in other countries many years ago. The German Gestapo, in the 1930s and ’40s, randomly stopped Jews and others to demand “Identity Papers,” claiming that it reduced crime. Today, those who remember are aging, so to most Canadians, this is not reality, just “ancient history.” But do we really want to repeat it? Edward A. Collis, Burlington In general I find the principle of targeting people based on colour abhorrent, but there are situations where it may result in more efficient policing. And while there is no doubt that poverty, education and other factors have a major impact on crime distribution among ethnic groups, that doesn’t mean that we should abandon common sense and efficiency in favour of political expediency and political correctness. Michael Poliacik, Toronto Having issued more than 6,000 cards over five years, did this officer ever do anything else to earn his salary? And was he indeed graded on the number of cards issued?
The behaviour of the police during the G20 did a lot to diminish the generally positive attitude of most citizens toward the Toronto police. This carding practice is not reassuring at all.
There needs to be a dramatic change in attitude — from Chief Bill Blair on down. Alice Mawhinney, Toronto Re Ex officer’s candid view of carding, Sept 29 Aren’t we forgetting the fundamentals in this whole Toronto police “carding” hullabaloo? It doesn’t matter how many cards the police are processing, but that they’re doing it at all.
As the Canadian Civil Liberties Association says, “In general, you do not have to talk to the police or answer their questions if you don’t want to, and you do not have to identify yourself or give them any information.” That’s pretty definitive, then: carding is illegal.
So Alok Mukherjee and the police board should crush the practice immediately. And until they do, anyone stopped by police for no reason should just gently tell them, “No.” Peter Ferguson, Kimberley Nowhere (including the Star) has the term “known to police” been adequately defined, nor has its use in conjunction with carding. Say a black 17-year-old, who lives in the Jane and Finch area, has no previous convictions but has been carded numerous times and is therefore “known to police” is picked up with a few grams of marijuana. If he is charged it will be made quite clear that he is “known to police.”
If a white 17-year-old, who lives in a safe, mostly white neighbourhood, has no previous convictions and has never been carded, is picked up with the same few grams of marijuana, he
“It doesn’t matter how many cards the police are processing, but that they’re doing it at all.” PETER FERGUSON, KIMBERLEY
Send email to lettertoed@thestar.ca; via Web at thestar.ca/ letters. Include full name, address, phone numbers of sender; only name and city will be published. Letter writers should disclose any personal interest they have in the subject matter. We reserve the right to edit letters, which run 50-150 words. is not “known to police.” If the white teenager is charged, will he be treated differently from the black teenager? John Blake, Picton Re Police stops damage lives of black Torontoni
ans, Opinion Sept. 29 While Scot Wortley quoted all sorts of statistics relating to police encounters with black Torontonians, he failed to mention the disproportionate number of blacks involved, arrested or imprisoned for criminal activities. Perhaps this is one reason a disproportionately high number of blacks are stopped or is it politically incorrect to mention this? Bhupinder S. Liddar, Milton Blacks represent too small a percentage of the population of this city to carry on the fight themselves. They need the help of white people of goodwill to end this injustice until the very nature of the police is changed as it must. Romain Pitt, Toronto Although there are many middle class and wealthy blacks, Canadian blacks are among the poorest groups in Canada according to income levels. Black persons between the ages of 15 to 24 have a 50-per-cent poverty rate. Over 30 per cent of Canada’s blacks live below the poverty line. Education is the key to getting out of poverty.
There should be community and sports programs for young black people and young people of all races to keep them off the street and out of trouble. Ken Sisler, Newmarket If we weren’t exposed to daily pictures of black youth who have been shot and black perpetrators being sought for shooting them, your story would have more relevance. It seems to me that the carding police are doing should be seen as protecting blacks as well as the rest of the community instead of being seen as an infringement of one’s rights. Ross Quantz, Mississauga I am outraged! If I didn’t know I was living in Canada, I would think I was living in a police state. How can police expect to be treated with respect by our youth when every action of theirs is designed to produce the opposite effect?
How is it possible that the police have an “inaccurate” 50-page dossier on a young black man who has never even been charged with a crime? How many more such dossiers exist on innocent young men of any colour who have been carded? Somewhere in there, Charter rights are being violated. Joan Joseph, Cambridge