Thank you very much, Mr. Noormohamed. Maybe I'll switch to our comments around data and data sharing, because those things are fundamental and they are some of the things actually articulated in Bill C-20. A transformation is required. One of the many lessons learned from the mass casualty report is that there needs to be a naming and countering of the operation of misogyny, racism, homophobia and other non-egalitarian attitudes within policing, and that needs to be placed at the heart of the strategies to improve everyday policing. That's what I think Mr. Weber was indicating with respect to real change. To improve everyday policing in an effective way, you need good data; you need demographically segmented data, and you need to be brave enough to actually address the challenges when you have that demographically segmented data.
In Calgary the racial demographics are wonderfully and increasingly diverse. Calgary is approaching 44% people of colour, according to the most recent data. Realistically, in less than three years the term “visible minority” won't make statistical or mathematical sense, but it's still used in data collection and in policing. Frankly, no one wants to be referred to by that fairly terrible, archaic and socially diminishing term.
Training and approaches need to be developed to train police services in the collection of demographically disaggregated data in a credible and consistent fashion. It's police, after all, who actually need to ask people in Canada for that information. Data collection currently occurs using a method called officer perception—basically, where the presenting police services member decides, based on their lived experience and knowledge—or lack thereof, quite frankly—a person's demographic characteristics for collection.
Data collection processes and approaches need to be established for credible data collection, consistent data collection and national data collection across Canada. Collected data must be analyzed with effective interpretation. Policing bodies need to be accountable for addressing the results the analysis demonstrates within a defined time frame. We can't have this ongoing, “Well, we've learned this,” and three years later there's another report and, “We've still learned this,” and nothing has happened. When the Ontario Human Rights Commission required the Toronto Police Service to collect race-based data, those data merely reflected what in certain cases Black people had said and known for decades. The finding of note in the Toronto report was the section on the use of force. Here, Black people were 2.3 times more likely than white people to have firearms pointed at them by the police when no other weapons were perceived.
No longer can—
Go ahead. Thank you.