TORONTO

We asked freelance journalist Desmond Cole, who has written extensively about his interaction with police, several questions about the police practice of carding.

Q: Is carding a violation of civil rights?

A: I think it is. So do former Chief Justice Roy McMurtry, the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and the Law Union of Ontario. Obviously, the police would argue that carding is legal. But they paid for three legal opinions on carding with public funds, and then never released those opinions. I’d like to know what the police’s lawyers say about carding.

Q: Are you disappointed the first black chief of police supports carding in principle?

A: I’m disappointed that any person who claims to serve the public, black or otherwise, would support carding without providing hard evidence that it is legal and effective. My specific disappointment with Saunders is that he denies his own experiences as a black man who has himself been arbitrarily hassled by police. Saunders recently said he used to get stopped a lot because he wore his baseball cap backwards. Not only is this a ridiculous reason to stop someone, it sidesteps the fact that Saunders was probably stopped for the same reason that I’ve been stopped dozens of times: We are both black men.

Q: Is there a justification or legitimate use for carding?

A: No. If the police are documenting someone as part of a specific criminal investigation, it’s not carding and no one has a problem with that. The problem is that police want to continue carding people whom they don’t suspect of any crime. They have never provided any evidence of the effect this practice has on crime, but that’s not even the point. Searching cars and houses without a warrant might also help police solve more crimes, but those activities are illegal and are therefore invalid policing tools.

Q: How have citizens been harmed by carding?

A: Untold thousands of innocent people have their names and info put a carding database. Even though carding documents non-criminal interactions, the info police collect sometimes shows up on a criminal background checks for a job or school placement. It can literally ruin someone’s future. People who exercise their legal right not to talk to police, like Mutaz Elmardy, or the four black boys detained by police on Neptune Dr., have been beaten up by police. Black residents, who get carded far more than anyone else, are stigmatized, and once you’re in the system the police can justify carding you repeatedly.

Q: The Toronto Police have said the practice of carding has been suspended since January, is this accurate?

A: Yes, but former chief (Bill) Blair suspended the practice without telling anyone why. It’s as if the police want to acknowledge something is wrong with carding, but don’t want to say it plainly. Also, just because carding has been suspended does not mean the police have stopped disproportionately targeting black people in every Toronto neighbourhood (the police’s own numbers show this is the case).

Q: Why are minorities — black and brown — targeted?

A: Because anti-black stereotypes encourage police, and everyone else in society, to treat black people like we are all criminals and suspects, and to deny us the presumption of innocence that every Canadian should enjoy. The argument that some black people are involved in crime does not justify police judging anyone based on skin colour or perceived ethnicity. White people commit the most crimes in Canada — should they all be profiled, as we are? Of course not. The police are a billion-dollar corporation: Surely they have more sophisticated policing techniques than, “Hey, there’s a black guy, let’s stop him!”

Q: Has carding undermined community policing efforts in high priority neighbourhoods?

A:Unfortunately, yes, but it doesn’t stop there. Police also target black people who drive expensive cars, as if there is something wrong or suspicious in that. So they end up alienating a huge portion of black people, young or old, rich or poor. I would add that police have also alienated many indigenous people, homeless people, and people with mental illnesses, by unfairly targeting and stereotyping them. If you belong to a historically disadvantaged group in Canada, you are far more likely to be a target for the cops.

Q: If the practice of carding is maintained, what should happen next?

A: Police should inform people of their right to walk away, and should issue a carbon copy receipt every single time they take someone’s info for a non-criminal stop. Carding dropped by over 90% in 2013 when police were forced to issue receipts. They say carding is essential, but seem to lose interest in it once accountability measures are introduced. Once carding is brought into the light of day, I’m confident police will stop doing it. We also need to destroy the database of carding info that has already been collected without any reason. This is simple stuff, and I’m really not sure why Mayor (John) Tory and the police board are taking so long to do the right thing.

— Cole is a freelance journalist and hosts a radio show Sundays on Newstalk 1010.