TORONTO -- In the face of growing calls to defund the police, Toronto Mayor John Tory is recommending that city council develop “alternative models of community safety response.”
The motion, which will be heard by council on Monday, involves the creation of a non-police led response to calls which do not involve weapons or violence, specifically calls which involve individuals experiencing mental health crises and where a police response is not necessary.
Tory’s motion would also task councillors with detailing the “likely reductions” to the Toronto Police Service that would result from the changes.
“In recent weeks, here in Toronto and around the world, people have been raising their voices and calling for an end to racism generally, to anti-Black racism and to racism experienced by Indigenous and marginalized communities,” Tory said at a news conference on Thursday morning.
“As mayor, I acknowledge that despite our city being one of the world’s most diverse, systemic racism continues to be a real issue here in Toronto and there is much more all of us can do and must do to confront it and to eliminate it.”
Last Friday, those calls for changes to the city’s policing system were on full display outside of Toronto police headquarters on College Street where anti-Black racism protesters painted the words “defund the police” in big, bold pink letters.
The demonstration came as the Toronto Police Services Board held a meeting and agreed on additional consultation with the public about the chair’s report on confronting anti-Black racism in the city.
Tory said at the time that the decision was “the right thing to do” and would allow the board to engage in broader consultation, as well as with its own advisory panels.
“My expectation is, as a result of the changes proposed, that we will improve how community safety is provided to Torontonians, particularly to Indigenous, Black and marginalized communities. And I am confident that it will lead to reductions in the Toronto Police Service budget,” Tory said.
“There are still many people in our city for whom a walk in the park or a shopping trip or a drive in the car is a source of fear and anxiety and when you hear that you know that there is much more we must do.”
The phrase “defund the police” has become a rallying cry for protesters in the United States following the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed following an interaction with police in Minneapolis in late May.
READ MORE: What defunding the police could look like in Canada's largest city
In the Greater Toronto Area, the movement has been growing in momentum after two separate incidents in which police were called to assist a person in distress and ended in death.
Last month, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, 29, died after falling from the balcony of a High Park apartment building after her mother had called police for help.
This past weekend, Ejaz Choudry was killed following an encounter with police. The family of 62-year-old Choudry say he was not taking his medication and was in distress.
“We cannot continue to put police officers in situations where they are, in fact, set up to fail because the training that they get does not help them in addressing many of the fundamental challenges which the mayor has spoken about,” Councillor Michael Thompson said.
“Now, I believe, is the time to assign such responsibilities to other trained and equipped individuals to handle these challenges and these problems,” he added.
Tory hopes that city council will pass the motion unanimously, but one councillor is already airing her dissent.
In a tweet published today, Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam says Tory’s motion is “Not good enough.”
“He doesn’t cite a % or any budget reduction which is at the core of the movement to reform policing. Mayor now asks TPS board which he’s controlled for 6 years to reform policing,” the tweet reads.
Earlier this month, Wong-Tam seconded a motion tabled by Councillor Josh Matlow which calls for a 10 per cent reduction to police's $1.2 billion budget, the savings of which would be transformed in to community investments at the recommendations of the Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit and Social Development, Finance, and Administration Division.
That motion will also be debated at city council on Monday.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has previously said that he disagrees with defunding the police, was asked about the movement at a separate news conference on Thursday.
“I think it’s a massive, massive error,” he said. “I do not believe in cutting police budgets. Simple as that.”
With files from Joshua Freeman.
