Blair met with mixed feelings at last meeting
Carding dominates discussion as chief wraps up term
Nearly 10 years to the day he was named police chief, Bill Blair attended his final board meeting amidst praise, condemnation and controversy.
Thursday’s packed meeting at Toronto Police headquarters followed a similar pattern established in recent months: citizen after citizen taking the mic and urging board members not to pass the divisive revised community engagement, or “carding” policy — or, better yet, eliminate the practice altogether.
“Put the whole thing aside . . . ,” “Listen intently and take us seriously . . . ,” and “I cannot understand why it’s so important to stop perfectly innocent citizens. . . .”
From Anthony Morgan, a lawyer with African Canadian Legal Clinic, came perhaps the most stinging words for a departing chief: “We have long memories.”
The hugely controversial issue of carding — when officers stop, question and document citizens, a practice that disproportionately affects young brown and black men — is poised to become a black mark on Blair’s legacy, particularly after the board’s decision Thursday to pass a policy many see as a watered-down version of the one passed by the board in April 2014.
The carding issue has blown up in the final stretch of the chief’s 10-year tenure, which ends next week. The heated struggle to implement the original carding policy that passed last April has also strained relations within the board.
That much was clear when Blair, moments after Toronto Police Services Board chair Alok Mukherjee praised the outgoing chief for his service, called Mukherjee out for appearing to say in media reports this week that Blair had been insubordinate on the issue of carding.
Mukherjee told the Star the board had two options: compromise or charge the chief with insubordination. But Mukherjee denied calling Blair insubordinate in that interview.
“It is unfortunately a gross mischaracterization of our interactions on this issue,” said Blair, staring directly at Mukherjee as he spoke. “I think it’s unfortunate the way in which your remarks have perhaps been mischaracterized but have certainly left the false impression that you believed I was insubordinate.”
“I have never said nor will say there was insubordination, and there was none,” Mukherjee responded. The Star is publishing a correction today on A2.
The seven-member civilian board has yet to choose Blair’s successor — final interviews are set for Friday — but an announcement is likely in the coming days.
Some of the citizens speaking at the meeting expressed frustration that whoever comes into the chief’s office next will already have a mess to clean up.
“People are hopeful there will truly be a new direction, but he or she will be encumbered with the fact that already the public trust has been undermined by this policy,” one speaker said.
An April 15 column about Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair’s defence of the force’s carding practices stated that Blair is ending his career with an act of “insubordination” and said that police board chair Alok Mukherjee had characterized Blair’s intransigence as actionable insubordination in an interview with another Toronto Star columnist about the carding controversy published on April 14. In fact, Mukherjee did not call Blair insubordinate but was talking about options available to the board which included charging the chief with insubordination.