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Toronto Police Use Excessive Force on Black People: Report

  • Despite making up 8 percent of the population, Black residents in Toronto are far more likely to die at the hands of police than whites.

    Despite making up 8 percent of the population, Black residents in Toronto are far more likely to die at the hands of police than whites. | Photo: Reuters

Published 11 December 2018
Opinion

The statistics haven't changed since 2000, the report by an Ontario-based watchdog group found.

A Black person in Toronto, Canada is 20 times more likely to be shot dead by police than a white person, according to a report released Monday from a human rights watchdog organization.

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The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) found that between 2013 and 2017, Black citizens in Toronto were disproportionately discriminated against by police after researching seven years of data regarding interactions between law enforcement and residents.

“Overall, the OHRC has serious concerns about racial profiling and racial discrimination of Black people by the Toronto Police Service (TPS) in use of force incidents; stops, questioning and searches; and charges,” the group states in the report.

The group spoke to 130 people in predominantly Black communities about their experiences in an ongoing community outreach process. People spoke of "fear, trauma and humiliation", which has fostered "mistrust and expectations of negative treatment by police."

"Even where individuals did not have first-hand experiences, high-profile incidents or experiences of friends and family reinforced community distrust," the report said.

Only around 8 percent of Toronto's 2.7 million residents are Black. However, they are on the receiving end of 30 percent of police use-of-force incidents that resulted in serious injury or death, 60 percent of deadly encounters with police, as well as 70 percent of fatal police shootings.

The report added that officers who were involved in incidents provided biased and untrustworthy testimony at times and inappropriately made attempts to stop incidents from being recorded while also failing to cooperate with the investigating unit.

Earlier last week, Canada’s statistical agency released figures showing that hate crimes in the country increased 47 percent in 2017. Black people, Muslims, and Jews were the most targeted groups. The biggest increase was in crimes targeting Muslims.

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