

Chris Kitching, CP24.com





Relatives of Ontarians who were fatally shot by police held a remembrance march in Toronto on Sunday to protest alleged police brutality and bring attention to their calls for changes to use-of-force guidelines.

The group, including family and friends of Sammy Yatim, walked from Yonge-Dundas Square to the corner of Dundas Street West and Bellwoods Avenue, where the young man died in a confrontation with Toronto police officers in July 2013.

The crowd included Marianne MacIsaac, whose 47-year-old husband Michael was fatally shot by a Durham Regional Police officer in Ajax last December.

“Never in our wildest dreams did we think this would happen to us,” MacIsaac told CP24 reporter Cristina Tenaglia before the march began.

MacIsaac joined Yatim’s family and others to call for changes that they believe will prevent police-involved deaths.

“We’re hoping de-escalation techniques will be enforced and (inquest) recommendations will be taken seriously,” MacIsaac said. “We really hope things will change.”

Sunday’s march follows a number of large demonstrations that were held in the weeks after Yatim died.

The teen was armed with a knife when he was fatally shot by a police officer as he stood on a TTC streetcar in the city’s west end.

At Sunday’s march, demonstrators condemned the police service for allowing the officer, Const. James Forcillo, to work a desk job for Toronto Crime Stoppers while he faces a charge of second-degree murder.

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