Calling it a bold move that’s “markedly different” than any other in its history, the Ontario Human Rights Commission announced Thursday it is launching a public interest inquiry into racial profiling and discrimination within the Toronto Police Service.

The inquiry power, granted under the Ontario Human Rights Code, now gives the commission the right to compel records and information from the Toronto police, its civilian board and Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) — data it will use to determine the disproportionate impact on Black and other racialized communities during encounters ranging from carding stops to use of lethal force.

The hope is to shift the long-standing problem of racial profiling from anecdotal evidence — individual stories too easily explained away as cases of “a few bad apples” — to quantitative data that will “pinpoint where racial disparities exist” on a systemic level, OHRC chief commissioner Renu Mandhane told a news conference Thursday.

The investigation, with its broad scope and scale, is unprecedented in Ontario, she said, and has been initiated after years of high-profile incidents, deaths, reports and public outcry.

“Despite the immense pain and suffering it has caused, discrimination in policing has been allowed to continue for decades,” Mandhane said. “It is simply unacceptable that people who were racially profiled in their youth have to warn their grandchildren about it.”

“We cannot afford to wait any longer,” she said.

The commission has requested seven years’ worth of data — from January 2010 to June 2017 — from specific interactions, including police use of force; arrests and charges; stop and questioning practices; and forms and conditions of release for various offence categories, including obstructing or assaulting a police officer, simple drug possession and failing to comply with a bail condition.

While it’s not yet known when the inquiry will be completed, the results will be made public and the commission will produce targeted recommendations.

The move was welcomed by the Toronto police and its civilian board, each issuing statements Thursday supporting the inquiry.

Meaghan Gray, spokesperson for the Toronto Police Service, said the police service has been “continually making changes to address issues of implicit bias in delivering police services,” citing recent examples such as the Police and Community Engagement Review (PACER), which aimed to eliminate bias in policing.

“The commission has been at the table throughout this process and we look forward to working with them again as we are always looking for ways to improve our relationship with the communities we serve,” Gray said.

But while Mandhane said Toronto police have verbally signalled their commitment, she called out the service for not yet providing data that was requested five months ago.

“For me, until we have data, that will be a real sign of co-operation,” she said, adding that the police service “has the resources to provide us with the data if it actually wished to do so.”

Gray called Mandhane’s characterization of Toronto police efforts “incorrect,” saying that for the last five months the service has “been actively engaged with the commission” on ways to provide the information. Toronto police have communicated that a significant portion of the information that has been requested is not readily available or not available in the form they seek, Gray said.

“In order to provide that information, the service would have to spend millions of dollars — resources that have not been allocated for in our existing budget,” Gray said, adding that Toronto police have offered to provide office space and full access to the raw data and documents for a OHRC staff to conduct their review. The commission has not responded to that offer, Gray said.

Speaking at the news conference, former Toronto police board chair Alok Mukherjee called the inquiry “timely and important.” Asked why there may be issues accessing Toronto police data, Mukherjee said there is a “great deal of sensitivity in terms of releasing data.”

“There’s no hesitation in collecting data,” he said.

Thursday’s announcement comes amid significant changes to policing, both in Toronto and province-wide. Ongoing within the Toronto Police Service is the implementation of the recommendations from the Transformational Task Force, an attempt to modernize the service, cut costs and improve public trust. Part of that includes conducting a review of culture, something the commission also intends to closely examine during its inquiry.

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The OHRC’s announcement also comes on the heels of the introduction last month of omnibus policing legislation aimed at strengthening police accountability and oversight. Part of that includes calling on police watchdogs to begin collecting race-based statistics that would shed new light on racial aspects of police complaints and use of force.

Meanwhile, new regulations on carding — the police practice of stopping and documenting people not suspected of committing a crime — kicked in earlier this year, prohibiting officers from carding someone based on race or for being in a “high crime” area. The new regulations are currently under review by Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Michael Tulloch.

The commission’s inquiry also comes at a time when the public demand for data-driven policy is growing. Lawyer Jamil Jivani, who has founded a group that encourages under-represented communities to participate in legal and policy issues, said there is “humility” involved in releasing data. It will open the door to criticism, he acknowledged, but will also create “new opportunities to make change.”

“We have to decide: are we going to make this a sustainable change where we actually want data and facts and information to inform what we’re doing? Or are we going to rest on our laurels and just have anecdotes and defensiveness and anger?” Jivani said.

Thursday’s news conference also heard from two young Black men who asked only to be identified as youth advisers with an organization called HairStory, an initiative of the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth. Both shared stories about being stopped and searched by officers without cause. In some circumstances, groups of racialized youth would simply agree to be searched and questioned for fear of causing any trouble, including charges, they said.

“I’m tired — I know a lot of people are tired,” one of the young men said. “I just want it to stop.”

One young man said that since the new carding regulations were brought earlier this year, he has not been stopped, but said he’s heard that others continue to be.

Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, said in an interview Thursday that he is not opposed to examining police practices, but took issue with some aspects of the inquiry, including the suggestion that nothing has been done to address racial profiling within the last few decades. He also thinks the inquiry “shouldn’t be just about Toronto.”

In a statement, Toronto police board chair Andy Pringle said the civilian board welcomes the inquiry, saying the board is committed to ensuring policing in Toronto is delivered “without bias, including racial profiling and discrimination.”

“We are always committed to continuous improvement in our policies, procedures, training and governance and we welcome this inquiry, as it may identify areas for improvement,” Pringle said.

Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca