Disputing claims that emergency responders could not attend to a baby in distress during the Raptors victory parade fast enough, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said officials should be thanked for their quick response time.
“Having this discussion is a little bit disturbing for me – there is a mother who has lost her infant child, but I can tell you that when that distress call was put in, within less than a minute we were there, within six minutes we were at the hospital,” he said on Friday morning.
“It should have been an opportunity to say thank you for the great work done by the men and women of all of the entities that made this happened.”
On June 17, an estimated two million people filled the city’s downtown core, with about 100,000 people crammed into Nathan Phillips Square, to welcome home the first-time NBA champions. Barricades set up along the parade route were pushed over and fans that had been waiting all day to catch a glimpse of the team eventually started to leave due to the heat.
The parade itself was delayed by a few hours due to the large amount of people that filled the streets.
A mother present at the parade, standing near University Avenue and York Street, called out for help as her baby suddenly became unresponsive around 1:30 p.m.
The baby was subsequently rushed to hospital in a Toronto police SUV that happened to already be nearby.
A statement issued by the City of Toronto, the Toronto Police Service and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment on Thursday said the baby was initially vital signs absent then regained vital signs later that day but died on June 19.
The statement came in the wake of Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack claiming that he received more than 175 complaints from his members regarding the planning of the parade, including claims that responding officials were unable to get to the baby in distress fast enough.
“Our officers were saying that they had a tough time getting to where the baby was and to treat the baby and paramedics rushed the baby to hospital,” he said. “I’m not saying that if we had more officers or anything that that would have prevented what happened here but there was a certain level of frustration that was exacerbated by the crowd and the poor planning of this parade.”
“We just think it was poorly planned and we want to have some answers from our chief.”
Saunders said that if there was a concern pertaining to public safety in regards to the baby’s cause of death then the Coroner’s office would have said so.
He called the “unfounded” claims “tasteless.”
“It’s a little offensive that they would take that stance and we all agree that this parade could have done better and I will say that the men and women of the Toronto Police Service did a fantastic job,” he said. “We had 525 officers that were there, that helped and assisted millions of people there.”
“Millions of people enjoyed the event and the feedback has been very good.”
Saunders said the Toronto Police Service will be working with the City of Toronto to determine best practices for similar events moving forward.
