Check out the many sights of Peel Region — but be wary of looking sketchy
Peel Police Chief Jennifer Evans said people walking in random neighbourhoods are suspicious
It’s got to be tough to be a tourism booster for Peel Region. It’s not for lack of attraction: There’s a lot to see in this area of varied landscapes, a place that has attracted people from around the globe, all creating rich cultural scenes, ripe for discovery.
The trouble is how suspicious everybody in Peel is. At least that’s what Peel Police Chief Jennifer Evans would have us believe. Last week in an interview with CBC Metro Morning’s Matt Galloway, she suggested people walking in neighbourhoods that are not their own are suspicious.
Of course if you’ve walked the very urban streets and waterfront of Port Credit or the trails around Rattray Marsh in Clarkson, you could be forgiven for not immediately feeling suspicious of others or being aware of your own suspiciousness. It’s all quite pleasant, a feeling that Chief Evans will disabuse you of quickly.
She was on the show defending her support of the highly controversial practice of street checks, sometimes called carding, where people of colour are three times as likely to be stopped as whites while going about their own business in a public space. She also let us in on her opinion of freedom of mobility and presumption of innocence.
“Seventy-six per cent of our street checks in Peel were people being documented because they weren’t in their area where they lived, and for some reason the officer felt, ‘Ok let’s see . . .’ ” she said.
“What’s wrong with being in an area where you don’t live?” Galloway asked.
Evans listed a few reasons why somebody might be walking in another neighbourhood, including a man looking for his mother with Alzheimer’s, or his dog.
Those are acceptable reasons to leave your neighbourhood, it would seem, but still suspicious ones and reason enough to be stopped by police.
It was an incredible admission from the top cop of both Mississauga and Brampton (Caledon, also in Peel Region, is patrolled by the OPP), an urban area with a combined population of around 1.2 million people. Even without would-be tourists coming to see the wonders of the Marilyn Monroe tower or the quaint sidewalks of old Streetsville, it’s a message to the good people of Peel to stick close to home, pull the curtains closed and peer out through the slit.
The only way we can understand this country and the different ways we live is by exploring it and bumping into other Canadians. Adding a layer of paranoia to that act creates a dysfunctional relationship.
Like a lot of Ontario, Peel’s delights are subtle and you find them when wandering through neighbourhoods.
When visiting Brampton, be sure to check out Chinguacousy Park, with its wonderful petting farm and botanical conservatory, but try not to think about Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that states, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person.”
When in Mississauga, visit historic sites like Benares House or the Bradley House, both nestled in lovely neighbourhoods, but make no mention of Section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: “Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.”
The 1,000s of students that descend on the University of Toronto at Mississauga everyday best stay on campus and not explore the beautiful Credit River Valley and adjacent neighbourhoods nearby, lest they start thinking too much about Section 9 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: “Everyone has the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned.”
It was certainly an omission in 1982 not to include the inherent suspiciousness of Canadians in our Constitution, but Chief Evans has clearly corrected that oversight in Peel.
An irony is that on Metro Morning, the chief also expressed concern about the public’s deteriorating trust in her force while encouraging distrust within that public at the same time.
There’s a reason community groups have been calling for Evans to resign because her support of racially skewed street checks and, now, blanket suspicion of others. It targets and maligns innocent people. It alienates them from their home and the people they live near.
Peel Region is not East Germany in 1975. People are not inherently suspicious and a police chief encouraging this kind of paranoia in Canada is insidious. Shawn Micallef writes every Saturday about where and how we live in the GTA. Wander the streets with him on Twitter @shawnmicallef