NINE - NOVE - NUEVE - BULLETS and when Sammy was dying he was tasered by other police officer. This sadistic criminal act is inexcusable and unpardonable...
An apology for crimes against humanity! LAURA Hensey from the daily newspaper "National Post;" WHY THE INMATES OF THE CANADIAN JAILS ARE NOT ABLE TO ASK FOR PARDON BY THEIR SMALL MISTAKES WITH THE LAW? The truth is the Toronto police is committing heinous crimes against, children, women, elderly, arrested people, prisoners... it is a repressive force that are planting in the streets of this city and private residences the fear, terror and death. In addition the police are committing extrajudicial executions in people of color and other vulnerable individuals, these brutal crimes are inexcusable and unforgivable. Due to the severity of the crimes perpetrated by the police and their instinct to kill defenseless people, the murderers must be tried in an "Internacional Tribunal of Justice." TRENDINGTrump | Pluto | Greece | Haters' Guide to Summer | CitizenSparks | Calgary
Black Lives Matter protesters interrupt police meeting
demanding apology over shooting
Tyler Anderson/National PostA group
called Black Lives Matter-Toronto interrupt a police services board meeting in
Toronto, July 16, 2015. The group was protesting a lack of response by police
after an officer shot and killed Andrew Loku, a black man and father of five.
Protesters from the activist group
Black Lives Matter-Toronto descended on a meeting of the Toronto Police
Services Board on Thursday, interrupting proceedings and demanding apologies
from the mayor and the police chief over the killing of Andrew Loku.
The group’s co-founder, Rodney
Diverlus, told Chief Mark Saunders and Mayor John Tory that the
shooting of 45-year-old Loku, a black man who was killed on July 5 by
police, was unnecessary, and that the officers involved should be held
responsible for his death.
“Every single day, black bodies in
this city face violence. Whether it’s carding, whether it’s surveillance,
whether it’s physical violence, and whether it’s death. This is life and death
for us,” Diverlus said.
“We are here to let you know, and to
put you on watch, and to let you know that we will take action, and that black
lives matter.”
Tyler Anderson/National PostToronto
mayor John Tory looks on during a police services board meeting on July 16,
2015.
Diverlus and more than 15 other
protesters read a list of demands which included the immediate release of the
names of the officers who shot Loku, that charges be laid against those
officers and that the mayor and police apologize to Loku’s family and the city
as a whole.
Black Lives Matter also wants the
city to pay for Loku’s funeral, and is seeking financial compensation for the
deceased’s family.
One woman in the group
addressed the board with frustration and said, “Why is it OK for police to
kill members of our community? And they are never, ever, penalized.”
Loku, a refugee from South Sudan,
was shot at an apartment complex after he allegedly refused to drop a
hammer after being instructed by police to do so. Witnesses say he was
holding a hammer when police fired, but was calm and unthreatening.
A father of five, Loku was living in
a west Toronto apartment subsidized by the Canadian Mental Health
Association when he was killed. His death has added to the debate over how
police deal with race and those living with mental illness.
“People of Toronto are fed up with
the lip service,” Diverlus said during the protest. “We are seeking actions and
we are asking you to take action.”
After the meeting ended and
protesters left, Saunders told reporters he “offers his condolences to
Loku’s family,” but added: “I don’t look for demands, I look for solutions.”
Saunders said the force has a system
in place when it comes to police conduct, and that the behaviour of officers is
taken very seriously.
“It’s important for us to have that
necessary transparency, and it’s also necessary that our men and women behave
appropriately when they’re working. And by and large they are, and by and large
we have a lot of good officers. ”
Black Lives Matter said they will
continue to protest for justice and on July 27 will be having “a day of
action.”
National Post
Laura Hensley/National PostBlack
Lives Matter-Toronto protesters at the Toronto Police Services Board meeting in
on July 16. 2015.
Baseless accusations of police racism harm Toronto
The
assumption that police shootings are motivated by systemic racism, to the
exclusion of any other possibility, is inaccurate and inflammatory.
Toronto Star Order this photo
The postulation, based on
statistical disparities, that an entire police service is racist is false,
inflammatory and counterproductive to meaningful debate, writes Mike McCormack.
By: Mike McCormack Published on Mon Jul 20 2015
Over the past few years, the Toronto
Police Service has been the subject of accusations of racial profiling and
biased policing. Most recently, on the anniversary of the Danzig shooting, an article on this page by journalist Desmond Cole
stereotyped Toronto Police Service officers as anti-black racists.
While I respect the right of any
individual or group to express their opinions, the assumption that
police-involved shootings are motivated by systemic racism, to the exclusion of
any other possibility, is inaccurate and inflammatory.
When a police officer responds to an
incident that threatens serious bodily harm or death, it is the individual’s
behaviour that forms the police response, regardless of whether a person’s skin
colour is black, brown or white.
Today, all Toronto police officers
receive extensive training on dealing with persons with mental health issues
including de-escalation techniques. However, there is no single tool or
technique that will resolve every situation. Regardless of the individual’s
ethnicity, for each incident that ends with an unfavourable outcome, there are
thousands of other incidents that conclude peacefully. In 2014, the number of
use-of-force incidents was the lowest in five years. Relative to arrests made,
force was required in only 3 per cent of arrests, which included over 6,400
apprehensions under the Mental Health Act.
While a police-involved shooting in
Toronto is a rare event (two firearm discharges involving armed persons in
2014) the association has advocated for the issuance of non-lethal use-of-force
tools, including conducted energy weapons, to frontline officers.
Last year, our members had more than
2 million documented interactions with the public, including over 20,000
contacts with persons suffering from mental illness. Contacts include emergency
and non-emergency calls, traffic stops and enforcement contacts.
The total number of documented
contacts generating a filed public complaint was less than 0.1 per cent, meaning
that roughly 99.9 per cent of all contacts were not contentious. Some will say
that many people can’t be bothered to complain, however an additional 20,000
complainants would need to come forward to reach a 1-per-cent complaint rate.
Some have misrepresented police data
to support their irresponsible accusations of racial discrimination. The use of
census-based data to identify biased-policing, in the absence of other
variables, is outright wrong. Their findings are not proof of a culture of
biased policing. Assessing for bias is complicated. While the data may show
some disparity, it is not sufficient to substantiate these allegations. This
position is supported by the opinions of respected academics.
These unsubstantiated allegations of
racial discrimination are an attempt to stir public emotion and to justify
knee-jerk policy changes to police practices. What is ignored is the fact that
crime is not equally distributed throughout the city. The majority of gun
violence and other serious criminal activity occurs in neighborhoods faced with
socio-economic challenges. Despite declining overall crime rates, shooting
incidents in Toronto have increased by 48 per cent compared to last year and
the number of victims killed or injured is up by 66 per cent.
Police officers working in these
communities know that race does not generate crime and disorder in these
neighbourhoods. What does have an impact are socio-economic factors such as
poverty, unaffordable housing, lack of child-care, access to post-secondary education,
unemployment and homelessness.
Quality-of-life problems that
accompany crime and disorder are multi-dimensional, societal problems requiring
a multi-dimensional response. Police effectiveness depends on police legitimacy
and we will continue to do our part to build mutual trust and respect.
The association does not condone any
police practice that targets citizens on the basis of their skin colour, sexual
orientation, ethnicity, gender, race or religion. Bias-free policing has always
been our practice and our members are expressly prohibited from engaging in
bias-based policing activities.
That said, the police are not
perfect and our service has undergone significant transformation. While many
American police services have had police reform imposed upon them, we have been
ahead of the curve by addressing the issue of bias through mandatory and
non-mandatory training standards, policies and procedures, diversity hiring and
community-based policing initiatives that are the envy of police services worldwide.
As a forward-thinking police
association, we do not shy away from constructive criticism provided it is
fair, balanced, and evidence-based. Unfounded allegations of discrimination
based on statistical disparities and the postulation that an entire police
service is racist, however, are false, inflammatory and counterproductive to
meaningful debate.
This type of irresponsible rhetoric
simply undermines the good community relations our members have worked to
establish and thus harms all Torontonians.
Mike McCormack is president of the Toronto Police Associatio
Mr. Prime Minister of Canada and Canadian media whom owns the
children in this country, the parents! “Or the government” When children become
criminals because of the government educational programs why the racist media,
the regime, and their institutions are blaming the parents?
SOCIETY’S CHILDREN A SERIES society’s Troubling events
rampant at group homes
But
province failing to keep track of ‘serious occurrences’ involving vulnerable
young people, Star finds
“There’s no evidence that anybody is
taking this seriously.” KIM SNOW RYERSON UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR AND RESEARCHER
Several times daily in Toronto,
vulnerable children and teenagers in group homes are physically restrained by
staff or charged by police, or they run away.
DREAMSTIME
PHOTO Police are involved in four out
every 10 “serious occurrences” in Toronto involving youth in care and are
automatically called whenever kids go missing.
Their stories are briefly told in
1,199 Toronto reports describing “serious occurrences” filed to the Ministry of
Children and Youth Services in 2013. Most involve children and youth in
publicly funded, privately operated group homes.
The Star obtained the reports in a
freedom of information request and compiled them according to the type of
serious event that occurred — something the ministry does not do. They note
everything from medication errors to emotional meltdowns to deaths.
And they shed light on the troubled
lives of children placed in group or foster homes by children’s aid societies
and desperate parents.
There are 3,300 children and youth
in 484 group homes in Ontario, according to the ministry. Those homes, along
with foster parents and children’s aid societies, generate almost 20,000
serious occurrences filed provincewide every year.
Yet the ministry does not know, for
example, if physical and chemical restraints are being used more or less often
over the years, or if more children are sustaining serious injuries while in
care. How can practices be improved if no one is keeping provincewide track of
what is going wrong?
“There’s no evidence that anybody is
taking this seriously,” says Kim Snow, a Ryerson University professor and
researcher specializing in child and youth care. “If there is a child death,
they become very interested and are all over us for as much information as
possible,” says Raymond Lemay, former head of Valoris, the children’s aid
society in Prescott-Russell, near Ottawa. “But for the other stuff, we report
it and there is hardly a peep.”
A Star analysis of the two- or
threepage occurrence reports, which had names and ages of children redacted,
found:
Police are involved in four out
every 10 incidents and are automatically called whenever youth go missing. Some
homes are quicker to call police than others.
For kids on probation, missing a
court-imposed curfew and ignoring house rules can lead to arrest, more charges
and a date in court. The result is more involvement with a youth justice system
that can follow young people into adulthood if they get into more criminal
trouble.
Some of the circumstances outlined
in reports that led to police being called, such as damaging property, raise
the question: would a parent or a foster parent be so quick to dial 911?
Children and youth are physically
restrained in 35 per cent of serious occurrences. That number is low: some
restraints are filed under headings other than “restraint.”
A restraint report typically
involves the use of multiple physical holds. Some last a few seconds. The
longest involved a girl held face down for 65 minutes and injected with a
tranquilizer. Few restraints resulted in reported physical injuries.
The reports ask that the youth’s
perspective on being restrained be included, but that section is often left
blank.
Four out of five Toronto reports
involve children in the care of a children’s aid society. Its workers are
supposed to be notified if there’s a serious occurrence, but the Star found
reports where the child was clearly in CAS care but there was no indication the
caseworker had been brought into the loop.
Eight serious occurrences involved
deaths. All were reported by the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto. Four
clearly involved infants not in group homes. Two others involved young patients
with complex medical conditions who had do-not-resuscitate orders and were last
living in a specialized group home.
One woman gave birth in a shelter,
her baby dying when his head hit the floor. Another child died due to a
possible cardiac arrest, brought on by a condition that was redacted. Another
death involved a girl who collapsed during a home visit and died in hospital.
She was otherwise healthy.
The language used by some group
homes evokes an institutional setting rather than a nurturing environment. When
children go missing, they are “AWOL.” In one instance in which a child acted
out in front of peers, he was described as a “negative contagion.”
Often, the reasons for behaviour are
not noted. Children are in a “poor space” and are counselled not to make “poor
choices.” Blame is always placed on the child.
In 10 cases, youths at a single
mental health treatment centre who alleged abuse were released back into
potentially dangerous family environments before the results of a CAS
investigation were known.
Record-keeping is not standardized.
Several different forms are used to report serious occurrences. Medication
errors, which the forms classify as “serious injuries,” are wrongly entered by
some homes. And the level of detail varies widely.
Last week, the Ministry of Children
and Youth Services announced a wide-ranging review of group homes after the
Star presented it with a list of questions based on the serious occurrence
data. A panel of experts is to report this fall.
“Doing this review is going to help
us bring together the complete picture of what’s going on, both in terms of the
number you’re talking about on restraints or police involvement, but also in
terms of how are kids doing,” Tracy MacCharles, the children and youth
minister, said in an interview.
The ministry wants to know if
children in group homes “are getting the best possible supports,” she added.
Ontario’s 46 children’s aid
societies are private, non-profit corporations. They are regulated by the
government and have the legal power to take children from their parents for
reasons ranging from physical abuse to neglect. Most children are returned to
their parents within a year, after some form of help is provided.
Those in continued need of
protection are made Crown wards after a court decision. They’re placed in
foster or group homes, or with relatives, and are monitored by children’s aid
societies, which are responsible for their care.
Lemay, formerly of the
Prescott-Russell children’s society, says he doesn’t think occurrence
information is “collected rigorously across the province. And I’d be wary about
low numbers because there’s an incentive not to report” to avoid looking bad.
Irwin Elman, Ontario’s Provincial
Advocate for Children and Youth, says it’s time the ministry and children’s aid
societies take responsibility for their charges rather than continually passing
the buck.
“I am fed up with that dance,” he
says. “I will not listen to it any more.”
The serious occurrence results are
part of a year-long investigation by the Star into Ontario’s child protection
system, made up of 46 privately run children’s aid societies receiving $1.4
billion annually from the provincial government.
The investigation has revealed a
secretive system that has little information on how children in its care are
faring, and that fails to act on the data it has.
Ministry budget data between 2008
and 2013 obtained by the Star show that children’s aid societies paid for 3.5
million days of group care. But there was a steady decline over that period
from 790,000 days to 615,000 days annually.
The cost of placing a child in a
group home ranges from about $200 to $350 per day, to much more in individual
cases where a child’s needs require deeper specialization. Bob Hanrahan, who
owns and runs group and foster homes from Niagara to Durham region, says there
are certainly youths in group care who would be better off with foster parents.
He says a current “big push” by children’s aid societies aims to reduce the
number in group homes.
In its 2014-2015 annual report, the
Ontario Association of Residences Treating Youth, a lobby group representing
164 group homes, highlighted the “drastically reduced” group home placements
and called for “consistency” in policy and practice among across the province
in terms of individual children’s aid societies policies and practices across
the province.
The system has not given enough
thought to where kids in group home care or may need intensive shortterm or
long-term care will be placed in the future, wrote the group’s executive director,
Rebecca Harris.
The province does not post a list of
licensed group homes on the ministry website. Nor does it make public annual
group home inspection reports.
There are no minimum qualification
requirements to work in a group home. Snow, the Ryerson professor, says staff
is often young and inexperienced. High turnover doesn’t help. Too often, the
goal is keeping youths under control.
Some homes
are doing “not much better than warehousing” kids, Snow says, while others
provide quality care. Improving quality for all requires more qualified staff
and decent wages to keep them there, she adds.
“Some children require residential
care, and we know that,” continues Snow, who worked in group homes before
joining Ryerson. “But when we provide it, it should be the highest quality
care, and that’s not the current standard.” The reporters can be reached at
children@thestar.ca.
