

Chris Fox, CP24.com





Mayor Tory and Police Chief Mark Saunders held a closed-door meeting with leaders from the black community today ahead of a more public summit on “equity issues” that is in the works.

Tory told reporters that those present at the two-hour meeting touched on a number of issues including anti-black racism in policing and inequality in opportunity but he said the underlying theme was “finding a way forward.”

“The process has to lead to action,” Tory said. “It can’t just be another conversation. We have had discussions for decades.”

Members of the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter have been calling for a public forum on anti-black racism since August.

Tory, however, initially said that he would only meet with the protesters in private, where he felt a more productive conversation would be possible.

That changed last week when Tory’s office announced that today’s meeting would be a pre-cursor of sorts to a public summit on “equity issues”.

On Saturday, Tory told reporters that he is committing to holding that summit “as quickly as possible.”

“I understand from the passion of Black Lives Matter as well as the passion from the other people that I have heard from this morning that there is an urgency to this,” he said. “The passion reflects itself in the outspokenness that you see from groups like Black Lives Matter and the responsibility of people in government is to try to address that, to try to make sure that we take action as opposed to having more conversations and that we try to harness that passion and energy to make sure that in the end we meet the highest standard that could be set for inclusion and eradicating racism and discrimination.”

Inside the meeting, attendee Andray Domise told CP24 that multiple representatives chastised Tory for his refusal to meet publicly with Black Lives Matter demonstrators, and criticized Saunders for doing the same.

“Saunders did not speak to the group while they were out in front of Toronto Police Headquarters,” Domise said. “We said it was unacceptable that you did not meet with them publicly.

Domise said that all the community leaders who attended Saturday’s meeting expressed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and told Tory and Saunders their actions thus far have harmed both their reputations in the eyes of black residents of the city.

“Things have gotten to the point now where Tory and Saunders are losing capital within the black community.”

Black Lives Matter was not invited

While Tory said that he is committed to meeting with members of Black Lives Matter, leaders of the group were not invited to Saturday’s roundtable.

At a press conference held outside Toronto Police headquarters on College Street following the roundtable, one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement said that by inviting only a secret numbers of leaders and activists Tory was “trying to divide a community that was standing behind a very simple demand of justice.”

“What we are asking for is not something that is outrageous. We are asking for the bar minimum to make sure our communities collectively are safe,” Yusra Khogali said.

In a series of messages posted to Twitter following the meeting, Tory said that the conversation that has been brought to the forefront by Black Lives Matter has been “difficult” for him and has presented some “uncomfortable moments.” Tory said the meeting today helped him “better understand the passion and the urgency on anti-black racism issues.”

Saunders also echoed a similar sentiment, telling reporters that he emerged from the meeting “a lot wiser.”

“There was a lot of listening on my part. A lot of people had a lot of things to say,” he said.