Toronto Mayor John Tory is special. He’s one of few mayors who, until six weeks ago, also happened to sit on his municipality’s police board.
That’s why Tory’s recommendation to give Toronto Police an extra $48 million in the next budget is all the more troubling.
The recommendation came to a head Monday when the Toronto Police Service Board (TPSB) voted unanimously to accept the proposed increase.
The term “racism” did not appear once in the January 3 press release announcing the request for a 4.3 per cent budget increase — a total request of $1.1 billion. The closest thing was a sentence on the Service being expected to release an action plan to address findings in the city’s race-based data collection work.
Of the $48.3 million, at least $18.5 million would go towards giving raises to law enforcement officials.
The extra funds would allow Toronto Police to hire about 200 additional uniform officers within the next year. The new hires include 162 priority response officers, 90 Special Constables, 20 more 9-1-1 operators, 22 major case management personnel, and 16 new Neighbourhood Community officers by the end of 2023.
NPIPC: ‘The cupboards are bare for everyone except the police’
In a statement released last week, No Pride in Policing Coalition (NPIPC) said the proposed increase “is about Tory’s loyalty to the cops, not about public safety.”
“Mayor John Tory is lost,” the statement reads. “He has tried and failed for nine years to convince us that the Toronto Police will protect us, and seeks to reward them regardless of their harmful impact.”
The Coalition noted that “the cupboards are bare for everyone except the police,” while public services like adequate and dignified housing, employment, mental health supports, and child care remain critically underfunded.
Rejecting the idea of “community policing,” NPIPC added, “violence with a smile is still violence.”
Even after the global uprising in the wake of the murder of 46-year-old George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 by a police officer, law enforcement in Toronto continue to disproportionately target Black people in the city.
The introduction of body-worn cameras by officers hasn’t fulfilled its objective of preventing police violence.
The Toronto Police Service itself has acknowledged its failure to provide “fair and unbiased policing,” according to a June 2022 apology to “The Black Community” by then-interim Chief James Ramer.
Asked about the police violence against Black people in Toronto happening on his watch that month, Toronto Mayor John Tory told rabble.ca “that can’t be the way we’re doing law enforcement.”
But six months later, Tory’s assertion that “we have to do policing better in many respects” is being followed up by simply hiring more law enforcement personnel.
Instead of asking for funds to reform and evolve the Toronto Police Service, ultimately, their budget calls for more of the same.
Desmond Cole: ‘Police don’t keep people safe, they get in the way’
For Desmond Cole, the decision is simple: Defund and abolish the Toronto Police Service.
Cole, journalist and author of the award-winning memoir The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power, was the first deputant to speak in opposition to the proposed increase at Monday’s board meeting.
In the same spot he was once arrested for standing up against police violence, Cole spoke out about the police-involved death of 32-year-old Taresh Bobby Ramroop in October 2022. He noted police don’t keep people safe, they just get in the way.
“The cost of people whose names we say because you won’t is immeasurable, and that’s why it’s so disgusting that we have to come back here, because you cannot put a price tag on our lives,” Cole said.
Cole raised concerns about the Special Constables Program being ramped up on the TTC, a service facing fare increases due to chronic underfunding from the municipal government.
“Increase your budget? You’re already doing too much,” Cole said in his deputation. “You’re already killing too many people. You’re already harming and wounding and traumatizing too many people, while you ask for more.”
Less than 20 per cent of the deputants who spoke at the meeting supported the proposed increase. The vast majority of them were either business owners or represented business commissions.
What stood out about the contrast between opponents of the increase and those who support it is what they represent: Supporters want to protect property, while opponents wants to protect people.
Another thing that stood out about the Monday meeting was the lack of consultation between board members and deputants, with a member responding to a deputant only once.
Huda Idrees, the founder and CEO of personal health data platform Dot Health, also spoke out against the proposal. Idrees pointed out that, just as it is in her business, money is a finite resource.
“When we’re saying, ‘increase the budget of the Toronto Police by $50 million,’ we’re effectively implying that we need to take away that money from some of the other essential services,” Idrees told the board.
As Tory asks for more money for the police, Idrees noted it’s more expensive to live in Toronto than ever, and yet, “we’re more dysfunctional than we’ve ever been before.”
“If you listen to any commentary about Toronto, we are an embarrassment,” she said. “Our infrastructure is crumbling: We have more potholes in our roads than we have cars on the streets. Our trash cans are overflowing. Our water fountains are broken. Public washrooms are not accessible… and here we are talking about policing.”
It’s not just experts sounding the alarm either. All seven newly-elected Toronto councillors released a joint statement Monday that all but explicitly opposed the increase to the police budget.
“…[F]or too long, governments have prioritized enforcement over addressing the root causes of crime and violence: poverty, discrimination, lack of opportunities, underinvestment, and inequality,” the statement reads.The councillors urged the city to invest in community-led initiatives, along with increased funding for affordable housing, mental health supports, and other public services to help achieve the shared goal of community health and safety.
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