Council urged to reject Pringle
Coalition wants someone who’s ‘experienced carding first-hand’
The composition of the Toronto Police Services Board should better represent the city’s diversity, say critics who are urging councillors to reject Andy Pringle’s reappointment to the high-profile civilian oversight body.
The civic appointments committee is recommending that council, at next week’s meeting, choose the Toronto businessman as its appointee on the sevenmember board. However, critics disagree.
“Good governance demands that appointees to our boards and commissions are reflective of the diversity of the population served,” Bev Salmon, a former Toronto councillor, wrote in an email sent to the city clerk with instructions to forward to Tory and 44 councillors.
“We need fresh energy on the board to deal with the challenges of policing in Canada’s most racially diverse city. The black community needs a representative voice on the board at the decision making process, particularly when impacted directly, as we strive for excellence in policing.”
Former Toronto mayor John Sewell, head of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, wants council to refer Pringle’s recommendation back to the city’s appointments committee.
The watchdog group is suggesting the committee come forward with the name of someone “who is knowledgeable about and can speak for the communities of people of colour, to ensure they receive fair policing,” Sewell wrote in a letter to councillors.
“Perhaps someone who has experienced carding first hand,” the letter says.
Pringle, 65, is Tory’s longtime friend and served as his chief of staff at Queen’s Park. “He’s an intelligent, thoughtful, diligent member of the board,” Tory said recently. “Andy Pringle is one of our most distinguished citizens in terms of his community service. I think about the only bad thing that he seems to have on his resumé is that he knows me.”
Council picked Pringle as its appointee under the previous Ford administration in 2011. He replaced Councillor Michael Thompson, the lone black person on the board and on city council, as vice-chair after Tory rebuffed Thompson’s wish to stay put.
If council picks Pringle, he’s expected to serve as interim chair after Alok Mukherjee steps down Aug. 1. The TPSB has seven members, including the mayor or council designate, two city councillors, three provincial appointees and one public member appointed by city council — in this case Pringle, subject to council approval.
A key issue facing the police service will be how the force reforms its contentious carding policy, which it refused to do under Chief Bill Blair and while Pringle sat on the board. Tory has promised to stop officers from putting information into a database collected from people not suspected of a crime, a practice that statistics show disproportionately targets young black men.
Province-wide carding reforms are due in the fall, following summer consultations, and clear regulations will be created for police services across Ontario that engage in a form of carding or intend to do so.