Race and related grounds

The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) on its Draft Policy on Race-Based Data Collection, Analysis and Public Reporting (Draft Policy).

This policy is about identifying and preventing both individual and systemic racial profiling in law enforcement. It is meant to be a resource, primarily for law enforcement authorities.

I wish to commend the government of Canada on the recently released Building a Foundation for Change: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2019–2020.

This is further to the discussions you had recently with representatives from the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) and Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC).

The OHRC makes the following deputation to the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) in response to its Anti-Racism Advisory Panel (ARAP) Quarterly Update.

December 13, 2018 - The Toronto Police Association (TPA) statements and video include several inaccurate and misleading statements, which should be corrected.

Toronto - Today, on International Human Rights Day, the OHRC released A collective impact, the interim report on its inquiry into racial profiling and racial discrimination of Black persons by the Toronto Police Service.

In November 2017, the OHRC launched its inquiry into racial profiling and racial discrimination of Black persons by the TPS to help build trust between the police and Black communities. The goal of the inquiry was to pinpoint problem areas and make recommendations. This Interim Report describes what the OHRC has done to date. It provides findings relating to SIU investigations of police use of force resulting in serious injury or death, describes the lived experiences of Black individuals, and offers highlights of legal decisions.

August 29, 2018 - We understand the government is conducting a review of the Safer Ontario Act, 2018 and is consulting experts, police services and the public. We are writing today to provide the OHRC's submissions on policing and police oversight to inform the government’s ongoing review. We encourage the government to implement the Safer Ontario Act and strengthen Regulation 58/16 related to “street checks” or “carding.”