Toronto board rejects calls to defund police

Tory lauds ‘ambitious’ reforms, but critics call plan with no budget cuts just ‘theatrics’

After weeks of mounting calls for an overhaul of policing and amid a continental reckoning over anti-Black racism, the Toronto police board released a broad suite of recommendations Tuesday aimed at addressing systemic racism and changing how emergency mental health calls are handled.

Lauded by Toronto Mayor John Tory as an “ambitious series of reforms” and dubbed a positive step by some community and mental health advocates, the 81 recommendations — which include permanent anti-Black racism training and greater police accountability mechanisms — was nonetheless called disappointing by those calling for dramatic changes including “defunding” police.

“Nothing they propose constitutes fundamental change: the police still have all of their money, all of their guns and all of their power,” said Chris Williams, a member of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition.

“This, to me, is still some window dressing — but it’s a step forward,” said Notisha Massaquoi, co-chair of the board’s anti-racism advisory panel.

She credited the board for conducting community consultations before drafting and releasing its recommendations, but noted the report will only be as good as the accountability measures that ensure there’s action.

The board report, which will be discussed at a meeting next week, does not directly act on impassioned demands to defund police — namely, take money away from officers and put it to community services.

In his report containing the recommendations, chair Jim Hart said the board “cannot impose any arbitrary cut in the police budget,” or make any cuts that compromise the ability to ensure policing services they are legally required to provide.

The plan instead calls for a review and audit of the police budget, greater financial transparency — including the “immediate” posting of a line-byline breakdown of the 2020 budget — and “de-tasking” measures Tory says “absolutely” have the potential to reduce spending on policing down the line.

That includes the development of an alternate community safety model that removes police officers from responding to certain calls, including emergency mental health situations, and a requirement that the Toronto police “detail potential reductions” to the budget that would flow from a new model.

“We are going to identify the reforms, make them, and then transfer the money when we transfer the responsibility,” Tory said in an interview Tuesday, saying he does not support “arbitrary” funding cuts but strongly believes the recommended changes will lead to police funding being reallocated.

The Toronto police board report comes one-day after a “highly disturbing” Ontario Human Rights Commission report found Black people are more likely to be arrested, charged, injured and killed by Toronto police than white people and other racialized groups.

In his report outlining the recommendations, Hart acknowledged “too many of our fellow residents experience the effects of systemic racism every day.”

“While these actions are spread across a broad spectrum of areas, they represent different facets of a single holistic approach that the board has taken up to openly acknowledge and

rectly confront systemic racism in all its manifestations,” Hart wrote of the recommendations.

The report comes after Hart in June put forward a series of recommendations responding to calls for changes to policing, measures that were criticized as falling far short of calls for systemic change. In response, the board held a series of town hall meetings last month to hear from members of the public about the changes they want to see. “The board has and will continue to examine and be informed by the submissions made during the town hall meetings,” Hart wrote. “The board will also continue to consult with the public on these issues and ensure that the public has opportunities to make its voices heard.” Sandy Hudson co-founded Black Lives Matter Toronto, which has called for a 50 per cent reduction of the Toronto police budget. She called the report “theatrics,” and said she did not see much change between the recommendations released Tuesday and the June report.

“They need to defund the police. It’s the only thing that’s going to work. They’ve already tried all these types of reforms,” she said Tuesday.

Dave Shellnutt, a Toronto lawyer who was among the members of the public to make deputations to the board during the town hall meetings, questioned the notion that Toronto police board can’t make cuts to its budget when they “aren’t adequately and effectively delivering services to countless members of our community.” “How can they maintain a budget that is failing citizens?” Shellnutt said.

John Sewell, former Toronto mayor and member of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, noted that the board will also soon discuss new spending on body cameras.

Next week, the board will also discuss a report from former Toronto police chief Mark Saunders that recommended the approval of a five-year, $34million contract for the purchase of body-worn cameras for front-line officers.

“If the board was listening” to the calls for defunding made during the town hall meetings, “you would have seen that reflected in this report,” Sewell said.

But the report does act directly on a June city council motion and a resounding request from members of the public repeated throughout the town hall last month: the creation of a nonpolice emergency service to answer mental health calls.

In its report, Hart said this was a “major theme” of the recommendations and written submissions sent to the board, namely, an alternate model for mental health crisis calls, wellness checks and low-level disputes. While the board and others examine ways to create a new crisis response model — which will include identifying the “non-core policing” calls currently handled by officers — the board report recommends an expansion as soon as “feasible” of the mobile crisis intervention team, which pairs a Toronto police officer with a mental health nurse, to ensure they are available across the city, seven days a week, 24 hours a days. Tory said funding for the expanded team would come from the Toronto police 2020 budget, not new money allocated for the service.

Rachel Bromberg, a mental health advocate, called the recommendation “a really positive step.”

“As stated in the report, people with lived experience must be on the front lines of designing and staffing the new team,” she said.

“Too many of our fellow residents experience the effects of systemic racism every day.”

JIM HART CHAIR OF THE TORONTO POLICE BOARD