A group of prominent Toronto leaders jointly demanded Wednesday an end to the controversial police practice of carding.
The group, dubbed the Concerned Citizens to End Carding, includes three former Toronto mayors, ex-councillor Gordon Cressy, and former Ontario chief justice Roy McMurtry. They say carding has led some in the city to distrust police, and are calling for the policy's end.
"The stopping of law-abiding individuals who are just going about their daily lives for the purpose of creating so-called intelligence is in my view in violation of the charter of human rights and the human rights code," McMurtry told reporters at City Hall on Wednesday.
"There is indeed great collateral damage from carding that threatens the foundation of our diverse communities in Toronto and elsewhere. At this stage, it should be simply abandoned," he said.
Carding has been a hot-button topic in Toronto for years. It allows police officers to randomly stop citizens on the street and record their personal information. Critics of the policy, however, claim carding is not random and targets certain groups.
"We all know young black men, young brown men and women who have been going about a good, productive, healthy life, who have all of a sudden been stopped and treated in a way that makes them feel devalued," former Toronto mayor Barbara Hall said. "This is not a policy that we want to maintain – it is a policy that needs to end now."
Carding in Toronto has been on hold since January, when former police chief Bill Blair placed a moratorium on the practice. The policy was also amended in April when the Toronto Police Services Board said officers can no longer consider "race, place of origin, age, colour, ethnic origin, gender identity, or gender expression" as a reason for stopping someone.
Toronto's first black chief of police, Mark Saunders, has previously vowed to end what he called "random" carding. But he said he believes it can be a valuable policing tool. In April, following a speech at the African Canadian Summit, Saunders told reporters that he's not in favour of eliminating carding.
"Abolishing it is not the way in which we are going to say, 'Everything is going to be better,'" he told reporters earlier this year.
According to police spokesperson Mark Pugash, carding is expected to resume when Saunders "decides it's appropriate."
Following Wednesday's display of unity against carding, Mayor John Tory said the policy needs to be revised. He said the practice as "carried out in the past" isn't acceptable.
"You have to define these things carefully in terms of what circumstances people should or shouldn't be stopped," he said. "These are the complex issues we are dealing with right now and we are working hard at them, but they are not simple."
