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Toronto Police to Reinstate Past Policy on Stopping Citizens

"The Toronto Police Services Board took a province-wide lead on carding reform Thursday by resurrecting a progressive policy that many in the community regarded as an important step forward in eliminating arbitrary stops of citizens and storing of their details in a police database,"Patty Winsa and Jim Rankin reported Thursday for the Toronto Star.

As reported Wednesday, demands to change the policy escalated after black journalist Desmond Cole described being stopped more than 50 times in a piece for Toronto Life magazine.

"No, it is not an outright end to a practice many see as offensive and illegal," Winsa and Rankin continued. "Some left a police board meeting at a packed auditorium at police headquarters feeling deeply disappointed.

"'I feel blindsided,' said Bev Salmon, one of more than a dozen speakers to address the civilian board. 'We came here with the hope that carding would be ended.'

"But Saunders signalled during and after the meeting — which also saw the resignation of long-term chair Alok Mukherjee— that he is willing to follow the wishes of the civilian oversight board on the issue.

"And, that is something.

"The board passed the progressive policy — and rescinded watered-down rules written by former chief Bill Blair— ahead of promised province-wide carding reforms, which are due in the fall. . . ."

• Desmond Cole, Torontoist: Black people have successfully demanded change from our politicians and police