0
No Pride in Policing Coalition calls for defunding of Toronto Police and a political protest in place of the Pride parade.
The No Pride in Policing Coalition (NPPC) is issuing a call for Toronto City Council to immediately take steps to defund the Toronto Police Service (TPS). The Coalition also calls on Pride Toronto to follow the lead of Los Angeles Pride and hold a solidarity march in place of the 2020 Pride Parades. Pride Toronto should ensure that this march in support of calls by Black, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQ, homeless and racialized communities for a defunding of the Toronto Police has COVID-19 distancing and masks protection.
The No Pride in Policing Coalition (NPPC), formed in 2018 to support all the demands that Black Lives Matter Toronto raised at the 2016 Pride Toronto parade, is joining the international uprising led by Black people in the U.S. against police violence in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minnesota Police, Breonna Taylor’s fatal shooting by Louisville Police, and the killing of Tony McDade a Black Trans man by Tallahassee Police. NPPC is also part of a call by Black Canadians for a public reckoning of the longstanding history of racism and racist policing in Canada.
Pressing issues of Racist Police violence across Canada and in Toronto
The death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a Black-Indigenous woman in the presence of Toronto police in May, the New Brunswick police killing of an Indigenous woman Chantel Moore during a ‘wellness’ call in early June, and the Peel police shooting of mental health survivor D’Andre Campbell in April, are only the most recent manifestations of systemic racist deaths of Black, Indigenous, and racialized people at the hands of police forces in Canada.
“Denial of the systemic, institutionalized violent anti-Black racism and settler colonialism, that shapes Canadian society and its policing practices cannot be allowed to continue” says NPPC spokesperson Beverly Bain. The past 10 years alone have seen an increase in the routinized killings of Black, racialized and Indigenous people in this country. They include, among others, the murders of Black men including Jermaine Carby, Andrew Loku, Abdirahman Abdi, a young Muslim man Sammy Yatim and Indigenous people such as Eishia-Hudson, Jason Collins, Stewart Kevin Andrews, and Everett Patrick.
Bain further notes that Toronto’s specific and well-documented trajectory of anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, extrajudicial killings by Police is enmeshed with homophobic, misogynist, anti-trans and anti-poor police violence and deadly police neglect of Black, indigenous, sex workers homeless people, the bungled investigations of McArthur disappearances and serial killings of Brown gay men in the Toronto Gay village and the unsolved murders of sex workers and Trans women such as Alloura Wells, a multiracial trans sex worker, and Sumaya Dalmar, a Somali-Canadian transgender woman.
In the U.S. and in Canada Black people have been calling for the defunding of police services. Minnesota City Council has committed to disbanding their Police Force. Toronto City Council action to this effect would acknowledge that, for Black, Indigenous and racialized people, police interventions are threatening, injurious and deadly.
Pride Toronto has passed a motion against Police budget increases
NPPC’s 2019 extended motion to oppose police participation within Pride and proposed increases to the Toronto police budget was passed by the Pride Toronto membership (see Appendix One).
According to Gay activist Gary Kinsman The No Pride in Policing Coalition has taken a stand in the 2SLGBTQ community against police budget increases. “This was a first step towards defunding the Toronto policebecause of ongoing reports of anti-Black racist violence by Toronto Police, police harassment of members of 2SLGBTQ communities, and the police debacle of the McArthur murders that do not justify the City increasing funding of the TPS.” he adds.
The preamble to NPPC’s motion passed by the Pride TO membership notes “the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s (OHRC) findings; and the interim report on Toronto Police Services (TPS) inquiry on racial profiling and racial discrimination of Black people in Toronto are deeply disturbing, and the OHRC calls for immediate action have not been significantly responded to by the TPS”… “TPS ignored/ discounted reports from gay and bisexual men in Toronto regarding men of colour going missing while a serial killer was operating for years without TPS intervening or taking our concerns seriously” and “Trans and gender non-conforming people continue to be harassed and harmed by TPS.”
Toronto City Council must act now! Minimum demands.
Both Toronto’s Mayor John Tory and City Council must commit to defunding the TPS immediately. Chief Mark Saunders taking a knee in the current protests while referring to the family of Korchinski-Paquet as “opportunists” and “liars” for demanding transparency into their daughter’s death in the presence of police, reaffirms that Toronto police must be defunded now!
Make Police Budget Cuts Now
- Immediately cut the 2020 TPS budget by an absolute minimum of 25% or $269 million. The TPS budget is an astronomical $1.076 billion of the total $13.5 billion City of Toronto operational budget for 2020 This is double what it was two decades ago andmore than the combined spending on firefighters, paramedics, libraries and public housing. It is also less than 10% of the $2.76 billion COVID-19 budget shortfall estimated by Mayor John Tory. All present and future funding increases to the TPS, including commitments to cover budget overruns, should be stopped. This will begin the defunding of Police, and set an example for Police forces across Canada.
- Redirect the funds from the police budget to Black, Indigenous, racialized, and vulnerable communities. These includehealth services, mental health supports, housing initiatives, income security, harm reduction services, accessible rehabilitation, mutual aid, conflict resolution services, transformative justice, settlement services, migrant workers supports, and other vital community-based support systems.
No new investments in Police Technology
- Make substantial cuts to funding for police armaments and repressive apparatus. This includes riot squads and other forms of policing surveillance and technological devices and enforcement units such as TTC inspectors. Research shows they do not protect lives. Instead they directly threaten the lives of Black, Indigenous and other racialized and vulnerable communities including BIPOC queer and trans, 2SLGBTQ+ community, unhoused people, street-based sex workers, people with disabilities, people experiencing mental health issues and poverty. Cease investments in body cameras.
Stop ineffective police oversight
- Disband the Special Investigative Unit (SIU). While answering to itself as a police watchdog the SIU refuses to provide transparency and accountability into deaths involving police. This is evident in the suspicious death of Regis Korchinsky-Paquet and others before her as they have consistently cleared police of wrong-doing in the deaths of Blacks in the city.
Stop using Police Training as a reward for Police violence
- End the performance investments in police trainings including so-called “de-escalation” and implicit “bias training”. None of it has worked. It has not rooted out excessive use of force or extrajudicial killings by officers.
The lives of Black, Indigenous and marginalized people are in doubled peril as a result of both coronavirus and police violence. City Hall must demonstrate leadership that is ethical and effective. The Mayor and City Council can only prioritize the lives of the most marginalized by immediately defunding the police.
NPPC has campaigned to support all the demands that Black Lives Matter Toronto raised at the 2016 Pride Toronto parade. This includes opposition to police anti-Black racism, violence, institutional police presence within Pride parades and festivals and increases to the TPS budget. Resolutions adopted by an overwhelming majority of the Pride Toronto membership since January 2017 have supported the adoption of NPPC positions within Pride Toronto. Black Lives Matter! No Justice! No Peace!
No Pride in Policing Coalition Toronto
Appendix
Motion passed overwhelmingly by Pride Toronto members at the Jan. 29th 2019 AGM.
Despite continuing revelations of anti-Black racism by Toronto Police, no change in police harassment of members of our communities, and no proper response on the police debacle of the McArthur murders, the police are asking for more City funding. Pride Toronto needs to take a firm stand against this.
Motion #3: MOTION TO REJECT $30 MILLION (3%) INCREASE TO
THE TORONTO POLICE SERVICES BUDGET
Whereas: the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s (OHRC) findings; and the interim report on Toronto Police Services (TPS) inquiry on racial profiling and racial discrimination of Black people in Toronto are deeply disturbing, and the OHRC calls for immediate action have not been significantly responded by the TPS and
Whereas: TPS ignored/ discounted reports from gay and bisexual men in Toronto regarding men of colour going missing while a serial killer was operating for years
without TPS intervening or taking our concerns seriously and
Whereas: Trans and gender non-conforming people continue to be harassed and harmed by TPS
Be it resolved that: The membership of Pride Toronto unequivocally opposes the
Toronto Police services request to Toronto City Council and; the City Budget
Committee for an additional $30-million (3% increase) to the Toronto Police Service 2019 operating budget; which would bring their 2019 operating budget to over $1 billion.
Be it further resolved that: the membership finds this request egregious and nonsensical and believes these public funds would be better used to support the many historically underserved communities in Toronto
Be it further resolved that: Pride Toronto publicly denounce this requested increase to the TPS budget and have a representative of Pride Toronto give a deputation at City Hall in support of denying this requested increase.