Canada: Black people immoderately stopped, checked by Toronto police, finds report

Black people in Canada's Toronto are immoderately being stopped and checked by police, a new report by the Ontario Human Rights Commission has found.

The commission’s report, which released on Thursday (Dec 14)concerning anti-Black racism incidents that take place within the Toronto Police Service, stated that even though the official street checks were fully eradicated from the system, Black people still reported being stopped and searched at a much larger frequency than the ones from other racial groups.

Nearly two years after the provincial regulation put a ban on the official street checks, a survey in 2019 found that around 40.4 per cent of Black respondents reported being stopped by the police at least once in the last two years, as compared to 24.7 per cent of white respondents and 24.9 per cent of Asian respondents, as per the Canadian Press reports.

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The report highlighted that one of the problems was the presence of "significant gaps" between the provincial regulations and Toronto police policies and procedures that govern the interactions that take place between the public, particularly when it comes to stops and searches.

It also stated that Toronto police gathered and maintained "significant personal data" via the street checks before the provincial rules came into effect.

It further said that this data should be destroyed unless and until required for investigative purposes.

The commission has so far issued more than 100 recommendations to enhance police interactions with Black communities.

"I am cautiously optimistic that, if adopted, the OHRC's recommendations will help reduce systemic racism, improve public transparency and police oversight, and begin to foster a relationship of trust between the TPS and Toronto’s Black communities," Dr Scot Wortley, a professor of criminology and socio-legal studies at the University of Toronto who provided analysis for the report, wrote in a statement, according to the Canadian Press.

The probe into anti-Black racism within Toronto police was launched in the year 2017 and earlier released two interim reports – one in 2018 and one in 2020.

The report that came out in the year 2020 found that Black people were more likely than others to be arrested, charged or shot by the Toronto police.

(With inputs from agencies)