Is it possible to hold police accountable within the current system?
A new review of the Bruce McArthur investigation has put a renewed spotlight on the systemic failures of the Toronto Police Service.
Our team took a little ~ spring ~ break last week, but now we’re back for the 26th issue of The Supplement, a newsletter that fills in the gaps of your other news intake. This is Alex, one-third of The Supplement team!
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This week, we’re tackling this question: Is it possible to hold police accountable in the current system?
TL;DR: This week, an independent review found “profound systemic failure” in the Toronto police’s mishandled investigation of a serial killer targeting gay and bisexual men, many of whom were also racialized. The review suggested over 150 reforms to improve the force’s engagement with marginalized communities. But as community members — and other recent news in Canada and the US — have reiterated, there is likely a need for a bigger overhaul in policing.
Policing continues to be in desperate need of change, as reiterated in recent reports and news across Canada and the US.
Let’s start with the most recent major case.
Published on April 13, an almost three-year-long independent civilian review found “profound systemic failure” in the Toronto police’s mishandled investigation of Bruce McArthur, who murdered eight gay and bisexual men — most of them of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent — from Toronto’s Gay Village over seven years. The review also covers the deaths of Tess Richey, a 22-year-old woman, and Alloura Wells, a 27-year-old trans woman and a sex worker, in the same area.
In particular, the report spotlighted distrust between the police force and marginalized communities, especially with LGBTQ2S+, Black and Indigenous individuals being “overpoliced and underserviced.” It also documented a dismissiveness in how police approached missing persons cases, along with other missteps like siloing relevant information.
“One practice I found particularly troubling — indeed offensive — was the institutional or systemic indifference to whether missing persons remained missing or were even recorded properly as missing in the first place,” reviewer Justice Gloria J. Epstein wrote.
In response, the report suggests over 150 reforms for the Toronto Police Service to better engage marginalized communities. Xtra Magazine writer Mel Woods highlighted five key recommendations, such as bringing in communities more when evaluating public safety warnings and developing responses to missing persons cases.
The Toronto Police Service has said it would put in place all recommendations.
But this might not be enough, community members told journalist Justin Ling in The Globe and Mail. (If you want to read more about this issue, check out Missing from the Village, a book that Ling wrote after covering the case for years. And for a more historical look, listen to his podcast Uncover: The Village.)
“Police officers that target, harass, abuse and violate sex workers in Toronto’s downtown east end have no shortage of opportunities for cultural sensitivity training, diversity and inclusion workshops,” Ellie Ade Kur, spokesperson of Maggie’s Sex Workers Action Project, said to him.
This isn’t the only recent independent civilian report that has found failures in policing. Last month, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission found troubling shortcomings in the RCMP’s actions the night of Colten Boushie’s death, after the RCMP exonerated itself in 2017.
But it doesn’t take solely big incidents to erode public trust.
Over the past year, there has been increased public scrutiny placed on smaller-scale activities like wellness checks, especially when they result in police killings. But it seems unlikely for there to be consequences in recent cases. In Ontario, the Special Investigations Unit — which has raised questions and criticisms about how it’s partly staffed by ex-police — has cleared officers involved in the deaths of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, D’Andre Campbell and Ejaz Choudry.
And as we were reminded by the recent killing of Daunte Wright in Minnesota, even routine traffic stops can be deadly — especially for Black communities.
With Wright’s death happening in the midst of the trial of Derek Chauvin, who is accused of multiple murder charges in the death of George Floyd last summer, many reiterated that police need to be held accountable not just through one high-profile case but through system-wide change.
Here’s someone to follow:
We have recommended a lot of investigative journalist Justin Ling’s reporting in various newsletter issues — so this time, we’ll just suggest you follow him instead.
Here’s a story to check out:
I cheated a little bit, so there are actually two data-driven analyses from The Local that you should read. The first one, by Inori Roy, examines the skewed distribution in COVID-19 vaccines in Toronto pharmacies, and the second one, by Nicholas Hune-Brown, shows that those who are most at-risk in the city are less likely to have been vaccinated. Altogether, they showcase how the vaccine rollout is leaving the low-income, racialized and hardest-hit communities in Toronto behind.