Status of Women Committee on March 26th, 2013

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

My pleasure.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

I will ask you a few questions that may seem a bit strange to you, but I would like to see where you stand compared with other witnesses.

Is the Toronto Police Service funded only by the municipality?

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

Almost entirely, yes, by the municipality.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

What are the other sources of revenue?

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

We do get some assistance from the provincial and federal governments, usually in the form of grants, but municipal police services in Ontario are funded by the municipal resources, primarily property taxes.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you.

According to the figures before me—which are probably accurate—in 2011, you had 8,000 employees, 5,500 of whom were uniformed police officers. Of that total, 29% were women. That is a 36% increase over the past 10 years. If I do the math, the percentage of women was about 18% at some point, and an effort was being made to bring that figure up to 29%.

Could you tell me what measures have been implemented to increase that number? Why hasn't a higher percentage been achieved?

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

Our efforts to increase the diversity of our workplace have included directed recruiting, targeting specific communities to encourage candidates to seek employment with us. It also involves, as I mentioned earlier, structures. For example, our peer support networks help build relationships within the organization, where people can be mentored and seek career advancement opportunities. Our promotion processes for advancement in the organization have a large diversity and inclusiveness component.

We're always looking to reflect the community we police across the broad spectrum of diversity that's reflected in Toronto. So our efforts to recruit people, position them in the organization, and give them career advancement opportunities and staff development opportunities are focused on being as inclusive and valuing the diversity that reflects our employment.

Those efforts have paid off in a steady increase in the diversity of our recruit classes year after year.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you.

This morning, we heard the testimony of an independent Quebec group that receives about 6,000 harassment-related calls annually. The organization has dealt with 327 cases, 23 of which have resulted in legal proceedings.

Does Ontario have any similar groups that are independent from police structures? How many sexual harassment complaints do you receive annually? How are those complaints handled?

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

Complaints by employees against the Toronto Police Service are handled through our internal complaints processes. I talked a bit about that. We have a variety of ways that members can register their concerns with their employer. The first and obvious one is through their supervisor. They can report concerns anonymously. We have a dedicated phone line which provides for anonymous reporting. A member of the public can file complaints against the service if it's on the basis of discrimination or a violation of the Human Rights Code. Those are members of the public who are provided service by the Toronto police service.

However, if we're talking about employee security with the Toronto Police Service, they can register their complaints through, for example, their supervisor, their unit commander. We have a dedicated investigative unit called the professional standards unit, and we have a series of processes that will be followed by the employer to properly investigate and help resolve.

Not every investigation may end up with a discipline sanction being applied, but every investigation will seek to find some satisfactory resolution for the complainant.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

If I have understood correctly, at the outset, the person against whom the complaint is made is not informed of the process. I would like to know exactly how many calls you receive from people making a complaint. Since this is the objective of the study, I would also like to know how many of those complaints are related to sexual harassment. You could perhaps send us those figures.

In 2009-2010, more than half of the hired officers were either members of a visible minority or women. What proportion of that 50% did women account for?

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

I believe that almost 30% of our uniformed workforce who are police officers are women. A specific recruit class will always include a rich diversity, but the last classes were composed of about a 60% diverse work group, including women. I don't have a specific number before me about the actual number of women in any particular class, but that material is available publicly because we report on that to our police services board.

We do make deliberate efforts to make sure that our recruit classes reflect the diversity of the community, and of course, the presence of women in the organization is an important focus.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Ms. Day, you have one minute left.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

What do you think should be done to improve your service's organizational structure?

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

There needs to be a clear statement of support for diversity and inclusiveness from the top of the organization. That statement must be clear and it must be reflected in all of the activities that the organization engages in. For example, it should be part of the training. It should be part of the selection and the promotion system. It should be part of our community outreach.

There should be a clear declaration that the service values diversity and seeks inclusiveness. An employer who is hoping to encourage people to consider them as an employer of choice needs to be able to make clear that they value diversity, that it is a safe and inclusive workplace, that it's a disciplined organization that respects human rights, and that they will take immediate action if they're made aware of any contravention.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Thank you, Mr. Federico.

We now go to Mr. Leung.

You have seven minutes.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you Madam Chair.

Deputy Chief Federico, Toronto is recognized, perhaps internationally, as one of the most diverse cities in the world; we certainly welcome people from all over the world to Toronto.

In working with harassment or discrimination cases, often your victim or complainant may be from a minority group, an immigrant of colour, and may also be handicapped. They may be handicapped by the fact that their linguistic ability in one of our official languages, English or French, is not fluent, or perhaps their skills, or the appearance of an age factor.

Perhaps you could walk us through how you handle when you receive a complaint like this. How do you determine which avenue to go down in terms of dealing with it as sexual harassment, racial discrimination, or as a faith discrimination? How do you dissect a case to give you the best outcome, the best knowledge of how to deal with it? Are there policies that guide you through that?

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

The Toronto Police Service has policies as well as procedures that animate the policies. Policies are declarations of principles that we want the service members to follow. Procedures lay out the actual steps that will be taken to achieve the policy goal.

In the case of having a harassment-free workplace, the procedures will establish how a complaint can be filed. Again, I make reference to the fact that one of the ways is the complainant can anonymously report the complaint. The procedure then directs the service on how that will be investigated. As in many investigations, the first step is to gather all the facts, then focus on the behaviours involved and determine whether the behaviours reflect incompetence or ignorance, which might benefit from training or education. If they constituted acts of inadvertence or oversight, then they're mistakes, and mistakes can be corrected through a combination perhaps of discipline or training. If they're outright wilful, they will result in a disciplinary sanction.

Policing in Ontario is governed by provincial legislation, which has a scheme of internal discipline that police services must follow. That discipline can result in the actual termination or dismissal of a police officer from the service if the offence is proven and the offence is egregious enough.

One of the overriding goals of responding to a complaint, though, is to seek a resolution. It isn't always inevitable that the complaint will result in some discipline. There may be an attempt to accommodate or reconcile the parties if it's appropriate. The complainant in a case does have a measure of choice and a role of decision to help guide the investigation. We're always trying to be sensitive that the complainant has a stake in the outcome as does the offender.

I hope that answers the question.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Yes, that's very good.

Moving on to the next question, when a complainant makes a complaint, there's always this fear of losing one's job. What mechanism do you have of reporting a complaint, either through an ombudsman or an anonymous method? Also, how do you shelter the victim from having to go to a third source witness to perhaps verify that the complaint is legitimate? How do you protect the victim from, one, the fear of job loss, and two, from being victimized again?

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

Reprisal is an offence against provincial legislation under the Human Rights Code. If a member of the police service alleges that they have been the victim of discrimination or harassment, the filing of the complaint is protected from reprisal. The individual is being protected from the apprehension that simply filing the complaint and providing the information will result in a reprisal. It's an obligation by the employer to make sure that there is no reprisal as a result of filing a complaint. That reprisal can take the form of ostracism, maybe a degradation in the workplace for the employee, or a transfer. The employer has to be very cautious. We take that seriously, that our reaction to the filing of a complaint is not understood by the complainant to constitute reprisal. If the complainant feels that because they've filed a complaint they are the subject of reprisal, that as well forms another allegation that the employer has to address.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

You have one minute.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

I have a final question. With the steps the Toronto Police Service has taken to be the leader in this area of handling harassment, are you aware of whether we are a leader with respect to the police forces around the world, say for example, other countries like the United States, U.K., or Australia?

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

I'm very proud to say that the Toronto police are sought out by policing agencies particularly, literally across the world. Last year, in 2012, we had 11 visits from police services across the world. That included Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. They were all interested in the Toronto police and the City of Toronto's management of diversity. They were particularly keen on how Toronto police have managed the challenges associated with maintaining a diverse and inclusive workplace. Even today delegates from Sweden are in Toronto examining how the City of Toronto and its agencies address issues of inclusiveness and diversity.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Thank you, Mr. Federico.

We will now go to Ms. Sgro.

You have seven minutes.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Deputy Chief Federico, it's nice to see you again. I'm amazed to see that you're still pursuing these very issues that you and I talked about when I was on the Toronto Police Services Board. Clearly you are having some success.

I think one of the concerns continues to be the issue of under-reporting. I am of the belief, and I think probably most share it, that people don't look to find themselves in these situations.

Are you able to do much within the service to encourage people to verbalize directly back to whoever the person is who's causing them the problem? If you just cut to the chase of it, if the individuals, male or female, who are feeling that they.... And again, this is more on sexual harassment because that's been the focus of our study, but can they just do the pushback right up front, flat out, and so on? Then you can go into all of the other areas. Is there much done to encourage people to verbalize directly back at the person who's causing it, especially within the police service? Whether it's the RCMP or our police service, you would expect people to have the ability and the courage to be able to push back in those situations.

[D/Chief Michael Federico]

Yes, indeed. We do encourage reporting by assuring our members that we will, first of all, take them seriously, and give them a measure of control on the course of the events. In our procedures we make it very clear that a member always has the opportunity to address the offender. They can deal directly with the offender. After having done that, they don't require us to make the complaint official or formalize it.

As I said earlier, one of the goals is to help resolve. If the offender and the complainant can come to a resolution that's mutually satisfactory, we'll encourage that and allow for that. However, if the complainant is not satisfied with the outcome, then the complainant can always come and seek further assistance from the service.

We've made sure that our members are fully aware of the options they have. As I said, we produce these procedures, which are our statements about how a complaint will be managed. They're available. In fact, they're required reading for every member of the service. In there members will see where they can exercise some rights and some options in order to help resolve the issue. We recognize and take very seriously that the complainant has an opportunity to control the outcome of the course of the event. One of the ways is to deal directly with the offender. It's always an option.