City council sent a clear, precedent-setting message to London police Tuesday: end street checks now.

The only hitch? Chief John Pare and the board overseeing city police don’t have to listen to them, and probably won’t.

But in a symbolic, emotionally charged vote, Coun. Mo Salih and Mayor Matt Brown led council to unanimously back a citizen group’s request that Brown urge police to end a practice critics call racially biased.

It’s believed London is the first municipal government in Ontario to make such a request of its local police.

“We have heard this is an important tool for the police to use, to help them solve crimes. But there are many tools they could use,” Coun. Maureen Cassidy said, citing tapping everyone’s phone or emails as examples.

“But we don’t let them do that. We don’t let them do that to the majority of the population that has a lighter-coloured skin (because) it is an infringement of our basic rights.”

Coun. Tanya Park and Coun. Anna Hopkins credited Salih with pushing the matter onto the agenda since he joined council as one of just two visible ­minorities in 2014. The mayor also thanked him for “pushing and pushing and pushing.”

Salih’s emotional remarks ended the debate, drawing a perhaps unprecedented standing ovation from the politicians, bureaucrats and citizens in attendance.



Ward 3 councillor Mo Salih delivers an impassioned speech calling for an end to the London Police Service's practice of carding during a meeting at city hall in London, Ont. on Tuesday November 22, 2016. Council members in attendance voted unanimously to ask the police services board to end the practice of carding. (CRAIG GLOVER, The London Free Press)

“I’m young, I’m black and I will never apologize for that,” said the 30-year-old Salih, who says he has been stopped “for no reason” by police in various cities 15 times as an adult.

“I’m sure (London police) will regret the day that they continued to impose this on Londoners.”

The emphasis here, however, must be on “symbolic.”

Though Brown will take the message to the police services board — he and Stephen Turner are council’s two representatives on it — they can’t tell Pare or any other cop what to do.

In an impromptu news conference held a few hours before the council vote, Pare made it clear street checks, also known as carding, will continue under new provincial regulations taking effect in January.

If the police news conference was held to influence the looming council debate, it clearly didn’t work.

“It is time to call for a ban on carding here in London,” the mayor said.

Added Coun. Anna Hopkins: “We as a council have to send a strong message against carding. It is not the right thing to do.”

Several anti-carding citizens attended the council debate, including London lawyer Faisal Joseph, who wrote council warning Pare’s approach may “bring the administration of justice into disrepute.”

London police statistics from 2014 showed officers collected information from a disproportionate number of black and indigenous citizens compared with white people.

Pare downplayed the conflict over carding.

“We all have a voice,” he said. “It’s (about) working together and resolving those issues.”

pmaloney@postmedia.com

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