Public Safety Committee on Aug. 14th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Welcome to the meeting of the study on systemic racism. We have two witnesses: Chief Nishan Duraiappah, and Chief Larkin from Waterloo. Each of you have seven minutes to present.

I'm going to ask Chief Duraiappah to make his presentation first. Then we'll go to Chief Larkin.

Go ahead, please, sir.

[Chief Nishan Duraiappah, Chief, Peel Regional Police]

Thank you, Chair.

I start by acknowledging my role as a settler on the region of Peel, which is part of the treaty lands territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit.

Once again, to committee members and the chair, I'm thankful for the invitation to participate in the discussion on systemic racism in policing.

As you have said, my name is Nishan Duraiappah. I am a Sri Lankan-born Tamil immigrant to Canada. I have 25 years of policing experience and am the present chief of Peel Regional Police service, which is responsible for policing a population of 1.4 million. The region of Peel contains the highest percentage of visible minorities within the greater Toronto area. It includes the cities of Brampton and Mississauga, and it is responsible for policing Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Systemic racism exists and has been deeply entrenched in all of our public institutions since 1867. Systemic racism continually affects service delivery to the communities we serve, as well as the daily experience of police members, sworn and civilian, when they are on the job and when they are at home.

As a member of the board of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, OACP, I'm honoured to be part of a group of police professionals who focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as a human rights framework for policing models here.

Across this world our Canadian officers and civilians are equipped, supported, trained and governed, which includes oversight, at a standard that makes them the best policing model and the best individuals in policing globally. As police leaders, though, we must go beyond these verbal affirmations. I, along with a consortium of the willing, am making bold and meaningful changes. We understand that the willingness to step out and implement changes to drive out systemic racism, without fear of failure, is required and expected. Therefore, in Peel Regional Police I have committed to a shift from traditional law enforcement to a pro-public health model rooted in human rights.

I'm adopting and implementing the following principles under a systemic change framework. I've initiated a systems review of all our directives and policies under a diversity, equity and inclusion lens. I'm developing leadership, both formal and informal, with police members, so they are ready to challenge racism in its various forms, critically and courageously, wherever they come across it.

Peel Regional Police is acquiring technical capability as well as establishing the groundwork to start race-based data collection, which I understand will be spoken to by Chief Larkin. I'll be standing up systems to help identify discriminatory practices where they may exist, and implementing a series of protocols to dismantle them. I'll also be committing to a reporting cycle to my governance entity, which is the Peel Regional Police services board, to ensure full transparency and accountability in our operations.

I'm initiating a multi-year plan for diversity, equity and inclusion, which will run parallel to the service's legislated strategic plan, which runs 2020-23. As well, Peel Regional Police has just launched internal support networks for all of its own members, including racialized individuals, sworn and civilian members.

We know that accountability and monitoring are key factors, and therefore my police services engage in discussing, reviewing and updating our existing systems of community consultations, to make sure they are more inclusive and more connected with the community voices on the ground, alongside the community partners and stakeholders in this region.

These are the key system-level activities within policing. As a police leader, I acknowledge that these are within my control to change. As I've said to you, an emphasis on a pro-public health model needs to occur in policing across all human services. In my own region I have seen how gaps in systems result in tragic outcomes, which my officers, as the 24-7 go-to response, have to face.

The Peel Regional Police service and our regional municipality, as well as many others, have committed to significant investments in community safety and well-being. This planning framework allows collaboration with community stakeholders to create a multi-sector planning model that proactively assesses needs and risks, and addresses them in tandem with community supports prior to emergency or police involvement. To accomplish that, the police service requires a shift of leadership to other public institutions, including health, education, social services and the not-for-profit sector.

In addition, innovation and technology are key platforms to achieve and enhance upstream community safety, let alone to support data collection and analysis. Enhanced accountability through a better understanding of where, how and why racial and other disparities exist is critical.

Ultimately, this is an interim solution, because an overall human services systems redesign is required to address the confluence of mental health, addictions, housing, homelessness and older adult isolation, as examples. In all of these areas, systemic racism and inequity exists.

I, along with other police leaders, have committed to eliminating systemic racism in our backyards. However, if all institutions do not address systemic racism within their systems, our efforts to dismantle it will be significantly hindered. This is because systemic racism exists both within and across systems. The only way to meaningfully begin to address systemic racism is to adopt a co-ordinated national approach, with real communication and leadership across multiple systems to guide impactful work.

We, at the Peel Regional Police, stand with the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police when it says, “Communities expect real change from us as police professionals. They expect us to be part of delivering justice.” We know there is no justice when systems are biased or racist. We simply must speak to each other honestly about all these hard truths.

In the words of Angela Davis, “In a racist society, it’s not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist”.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Chief Duraiappah.

With that, we'll go to Chief Larkin, for seven minutes, please.

[Chief Bryan Larkin, Chief of Police, Waterloo Regional Police Service and member of the Drug Advisory Committee, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Mr. Chair and members of the distinguished committee, as a member of the board of directors of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, it's a privilege to be here on behalf of our president, Chief Adam Palmer of the Vancouver Police Department.

Let me begin by saying that we live in a great country, although, as great as it is, racism is an insidious part of Canada's history and continues to be a reality in the communities across our nation today. Study after study, including a series of government-commissioned reports, continues to demonstrate that we have an issue with systemic racism throughout our judicial system, which includes our legal system, our courts and our police services across the nation.

The voices of black, indigenous and other members of our community were clearly heard recently as they conducted peaceful rallies across our country with calls to action regarding police interactions and the way we provide policing services to our communities. Our communities have expressed concerns about policing practices and systemic racism, including racial profiling. Black, indigenous and other ethnocultural groups have also condemned their overrepresentation in our judicial system as well as their treatment within our judicial system.

This is a powerful movement. It's also a powerful moment that we are experiencing, one that has culminated after more than a century of systemic racism in Canada. The Canadian chiefs believe the time is overdue: It is time for meaningful change in all aspects of our society. Tackling racism requires a concerted response from the entire community, including your police services. It is required to bring vision and to take courageous, bold leadership in our organizations and in our relationships with our respective communities.

Here in Canada, the approach to policing has significantly evolved and changed over time. Our police services have developed many strong relationships over the years with the communities we serve, shifting the emphasis from a focus on law enforcement to community engagement, community well-being, and a public-led, proactive crime prevention model that reflects true and meaningful partnerships. Our association is focused on the development of progressive, community-oriented leadership at all levels. We believe this approach is a key success factor to addressing the issue of systemic racism that affects our members and our communities as well as the trust and confidence within policing services across Canada.

There is much talk about improving mental health within both policing and our communities. We must achieve diversity, equity and inclusion in police services. The Canadian chiefs association strives to support tangible change in a meaningful way within the organizations we represent.

For this reason, diversity, equity and inclusion represent one of our nine national strategic policing priorities that guide the work of our association. A CACP committee is devoted to equity, diversity and inclusion. It was established in early 2018. It is committed to support our efforts and its membership to create and enhance practices that promote fairness, equity and inclusion through the identification, mitigation and elimination of implicit bias and discrimination in practices, polices and procedures; to remove systemic barriers; and to promote the advancement of inclusive, diverse and human rights equity within police institutions across our nation.

To achieve the cultural and operational change that is required, we feel it's important to begin with a common vocabulary and a common understanding of the key concepts that will help to identify, mitigate and be proactive to prevent racism and discrimination within policing across Canada as well as during our interactions with the communities we serve. As such, we have defined specifically for our membership the true meaning in our organizations of equity, diversity and inclusion.

When you look at police training and recruitment and oversight within Canada, police training and civilian oversight in Canada are among the best in the world. We should be proud of our accomplishments in policing within Canada. That being said, there's always room for improvement, advancement and modernization. Reflecting the powers and authorities invested in them, our officers and our members are carefully selected. We increasingly face more rigorous scrutiny and screening to try to ensure that our members meet and espouse the values of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which consist of courage, integrity, respect, transparency, inclusiveness, excellence and compassion.

We are working on enhancing our recruitment, hiring and promotional processes nationally to increase the quality of our candidates as well as to accelerate the diversification of our organizations so that we can be more representative of and more responsive to the communities that we serve.

Much progress has been made to embed accountability within our teams and expectations to model professional, equitable and inclusive behaviours and leadership, but clearly we need to do more.

Our officers are also provided extensive training that goes well beyond basic policing. That includes training on cultural awareness, sensitivity, de-escalation and emotional intelligence. Again, much progress has been made, but your chiefs are open to new approaches and strive to continuously improve within a national framework for policing. This includes investing in and involving communities in our training and our processes to understand what works and what doesn't work and where we can grow.

Once officers are hired and trained, they have more accountability and independent civilian oversight than almost any other profession within Canada. Again meaningful improvements can be made.

Race-based data collection is a key. We must embark on a course of change with regard to how we can tell we are making progress. The problem is the data doesn't currently exist to accurately define the scope and breadth of the problem of systemic racism within Canada. The collection of data on indigenous and ethno-cultural identity has been subject to much discussion. Last month, the CACP issued a joint statement with Statistics Canada announcing our commitment to work together to meet this important information need for justice within Canada and the Canadian public committed to advancing racial equity.

Together we will work with policing communities and key organizations to enable the police to report statistics on indigenous and ethnocultural groups in police-reported crime statistics on victimization and accused persons to include important context and avoid stigmatizing communities. We believe this initiative will help.

Racism, whether systemic or individual, is painful and inexcusable, and it will not be tolerated by your Canadian police leaders. Stopping systemic racism requires a whole-of-society approach. While improvements are required in policing, your chiefs are committed to supporting positive change in this regard.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you.

That completes our two seven-minute presentations. For the six-minute round of questions, we start off with Mr. Paul-Hus, then Madame Khera, Madame Michaud and Mr. Harris.

You have six minutes, Mr. Paul-Hus.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being with us today, gentlemen.

My first question is for you, Chief Larkin. You spoke of training. Currently, in many countries around the world, the prerequisites for becoming a police officer include undergraduate training. In Quebec, it is college–level. I imagine that in Canada, it is pretty much the same thing in terms of direct entry into the RCMP.

Do you recommend changing the training so that police officers have a higher level of education?

[Chief Bryan Larkin]

Thank you very much, Mr. Paul-Hus, and thank you for your comments.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police absolutely supports higher education and higher learning. Although policing and the ability to become a police officer are embedded in provincial legislation, we do believe there's an opportunity to look at a national framework with regard to unification of training standards and system requirements to join policing.

Specifically within Ontario, all you require is a high school diploma to become a police officer. Naturally, many police services across the province encourage post-secondary education, and we do track when members attend the Ontario Police College. We have a provincial-wide educational system for our new recruits. More than 90% of members who are joining policing now have post-secondary education, but we do believe there's an opportunity to become very focused in the education to become a police officer. Each year, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police sends global leaders across the world to study other policing systems.

We've seen a number of systems elsewhere in the world where academic approaches and robust training provide an enhanced level of policing in our community, so we do see that as a valuable recommendation. We would be willing to work on with government and Public Safety to advance national training standards.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Here is my second question. According to Statistics Canada, the number of police officers in Canada is currently declining in proportion to the size of the population. By that, I mean that we have a certain number of police officers per 1,000 residents. However, that number has been going down over the past 10 years.

Can you explain why? Also, is your association concerned about it?

[Chief Bryan Larkin]

We've seen in Canada a modernization of the police services that provide policing to our communities. Many police services across our country have gone through a civilianization and/or civilian professional modernization. Many services have been looking within our organizations as we look at the cost and fiscal impact of policing within Canada.

We do point out that in terms of police per population, Canada has one of the lowest rates per capita when you look at many large countries across the globe. We continue to see some adverse impacts around crime rates, particularly in large urban communities across Canada, when you look at western Canada and particularly Ontario, where violent crime continues to increase and is actually bucking the national trend over the last number of decades. What we see as being behind one of the reasons for this is that we're looking at organizations very differently in terms of who performs certain tasks. Traditionally where police officers would have performed a role within the police agency, organizations have moved towards hiring police professionals, such as within the telecommunications centre, media and public information, or various forms of community outreach. For example, in Ontario and British Columbia, many police services have mental health nurses who are working within the police service and are embedded within the police budget.

This is one of the challenging pieces. As we look at the ability to deploy police officers, we're seeing a decline in that ability. It's always a cause for concern, but it speaks to the heart of leadership that we're willing to do business differently, that we're willing to change our organizations. We can't lose sight of the fact that the core of what we do is to preserve public peace and to ensure that the rule of law remains within the communities to which we provide services. What you'll see in the data, though, if you look very deeply at Stats Canada, is an increase in civilianization within many different police services.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Excuse me, Mr. Paul-Hus. The technicians have told us that possibly the chief has a few extra electronic devices a little bit too close. It's causing a bit of difficulty.

I'm not quite sure why, but you seem to be creating some dissonance in the transmission. Perhaps you could readjust your microphone.

Mr. Paul-Hus, you have a little over a minute.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

I hear no noise around me, Mr. Chair. I don't know what the problem is.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

No, it's not you, it's the chief. Go ahead, Pierre.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Duraiappah, Indigenous people have a very strong presence in Canada's urban centres. Half of the Indigenous population lives in urban settings.

Do police forces have any specific measures with respect to relations with Indigenous people? Are any measures already in place as to the required way to interact with them?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Be very brief, please.

[Chief Nishan Duraiappah]

As you indicated, Mr. Paul-Hus, our populations, particularly in Ontario with our indigenous communities, are defined very dramatically. As you know, in the greater Toronto area we have upwards of 12 million people in a dense amalgamated blur. Then you can very easily get to northern Ontario, where defined first nations communities are present.

Our experience in the more urban centres is that the indigenous communities are of course far less defined and therefore are far less able to be, in a coordinated manner, in touch with, but we do see.... For example, I know that in Peel region, 1% of the 1.5 million will identify as indigenous here in our community. That is still a fairly significant number in relation to the many other diverse racialized and immigrant populations.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Unfortunately, we will have to leave Mr. Paul-Hus's question time there.

With that, I will go to Madam Khera, who may want to let the chief finish his answer.

You have six minutes.

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to both chiefs for being here and for your testimony.

Chief Nish, the past few months have been extremely difficult for the region of Peel with the tragic loss of D'Andre Campbell, a young black man from Brampton West, and Ejaz Choudry, a Muslim man from Mississauga, both dealing with mental health crises and both losing their lives at the hands of the police. Although these unfortunate incidents are currently under review with the special investigations unit, it is hard not to link them to systemic racism. The ongoing negative impact of systemic racism is eroding the public's trust and confidence in policing, which, as you know, is essential in keeping our communities safe.

Chief, D'Andre Campbell was a resident of Brampton West. As the member representing this diverse community, I've had many conversations with the black community in Brampton. Many of them are concerned. They are worried. They are hurt, rightfully so, and are losing confidence in our police. I know that you've been in your role in Peel for just over a year. You have been also engaging with the community and have been very open to and are proposing many changes. What my constituents want to know is this: What is the future of policing in Brampton and the region of Peel, and how do you plan on specifically addressing systemic racism in Peel Regional Police so that we don't have any more losses like D'Andre and Ejaz in our community?

[Chief Nishan Duraiappah]

I'd first like to acknowledge that we too acknowledge the tragic circumstances and the deaths of individuals. I think any police leader across Ontario and Canada would agree that none of our people set out with that intended outcome. Notwithstanding that I can't speak to the specific nature of both of those deaths, because they are being investigated by the special investigations unit, I can comment on the confluence of factors that brought us to the doorstep of individuals such as Mr. Campbell.

In this case, I think this speaks to the broader conversation that both Chief Larkin and I spoke to earlier about multiple systems and a multiple system failure. Within it is an element of systemic discrimination, but also in it is a failure of the system's support of individuals who need access. As an example of this, we see all too many times here in Peel region an average of 18 mental health apprehensions a day. That's just the apprehensions, let alone the calls for service.

Here in Ontario, the legislative framework allows that for anybody in mental health crisis who needs to be taken to a hospital involuntarily, the legislative responsibility lies with the police. We would all agree that, fundamentally, that is the wrong framework for an individual to access services. Add to that a racialized community. We've seen two circumstances where in the past year we've had multiple, multiple contacts with an individual. The family calls us because they don't have the supports to provide to an individual, whether in mental health crisis or not. You would think that the same individual would have multiple contacts with the health system, with their physician. We're all operating in multiple silos. If you look back, the fact that a family can rely on calling 911 as the only source of support for an individual in crisis and for us to be on the doorstep that day and it end in a tragic circumstance is really the failure of all of those multiple contacts along other systems to not have found an off-ramp at a previous time.

For me, yes, it's tragic. I mentioned earlier the emphasis on multi-sector collaboration and the shifting of responsibility to other human systems so that it's not the police, in the end, who are responsible. Notwithstanding the fact that we are needing to improve our abilities, which we do through the mental health crisis response with nurses and plainclothes officers and CMHA workers and multiple other initiatives, it really is a situation where, again, as we see in our region, individuals of racialized communities don't have access to services or connection to services. As a result, it's us in the end, unfortunately, in crisis.

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Thank you, Chief.

I know you alluded to this in terms of mental health support. A couple of years ago I did a ride-along with Peel Regional Police on a night shift. Nine out of 10 calls were related to mental health, as you mentioned, and yet there was no mental health expert present at the scene.

I know that just recently, in collaboration with the Canadian Mental Health Association Peel-Dufferin, Peel Regional Police has launched the mobile crisis rapid response team to deal with such calls.

You may not have time, but perhaps in your other interventions you can talk about the success of that. I know it's pretty recent. How does it operate? Could you walk us through the whole process for when a call comes in, and the success of this crisis unit?

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

It's a very important question. Unfortunately, she has left you 10 seconds to answer it.

Can you answer it in five seconds?

[Chief Nishan Duraiappah]

I don't think I can actually. It's a very complex one, but I would be happy to speak to it again if it came up.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Let's hope it does come up.

Thank you.

Ms. Michaud, you have six minutes.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank the witnesses for their testimony.

I will start with you, Mr. Larkin. You say that more and more care is being taken in selecting police officers to ensure that they meet and espouse your organization's values. How do you do it? Do you follow a list of criteria? How do you select your police officers?

[Chief Bryan Larkin]

It varies from province to province. As all of our members are aware, policing and the actual provincial legislation fall under provincial governments, so it does vary, but very much so we have national standards. There is a national use-of-force framework that all police services including the federal police service participate in, so I will bring a perspective from Ontario.

The hiring process is governed by the Ministry of Solicitor General. It's administered by police services. Similar to the case in Quebec, we have a provincial college, the Ontario Police College, which is very similar to École Nicolet.

One of the processes, though, is that we do select. We have human resources branches in all of our police services. In Ontario, we have a province-wide constable selection system, so we have a set standard that every police leader and police service has agreed to, which the government has endorsed, which leads to the Ontario Police College basic recruit training program, which, again, is government-sponsored and government-approved, but the selection of the candidates is based on the police service.

They participate in a province-wide system. This year the Ontario chiefs introduced a new system that looks, obviously, at the candidate's values, education and physical fitness, but there is also the administration of a predictive index to look at their success within policing. There's also an evaluation around implicit bias that allows our recruiting divisions and recruiting branches to look at the candidate. That is followed by a series of interviews with a local focus, an essential competency interview, and mandatory psychological testing by approved psychologists from across Canada. There are also financial inquiries, financial checks, as well as a psychological assessment followed by a home visit by police officers to ensure a candidate meets the standards.

That is then followed by a series of approved training that takes them through a 13-week program at the Ontario Police College and that includes a series of different cultural awareness and sensitivity training, etc.

One of the opportunities the Canadian chiefs are looking at is that for a national framework for recruitment, for training and for hiring. If we were able to set national standards right across the nation, we would be hiring police officers who have specific skill sets. We naturally understand that the various regions of our country require different skill sets and different attributes, but the basic work we do is fundamental.

That's the process in Ontario, but something we as an association recommend is to look at a national framework. Previously, there was a lot of work done with the Police Sector Council, which has since ceased to exist.

Our recommendation would be to look at a larger national framework that ensures we select the best candidates to perform a very complex role in a very complex society.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you. I also feel that the national framework could be a good recommendation, indeed.

In terms of training, you say you are going beyond fundamental police skill sets. That recommendation has come up often from the various witnesses who have appeared before us. They tell us that more cultural awareness is needed.

You brought that up in your opening remarks and you say that training is already being provided. However, if you want more training and more awareness, you need more resources. I would like to know how you see the federal government's involvement in this. Should funding be reduced, or should it be increased to ensure that police recruits receive training that is better adapted to the various communities?