Eliminate - Don't Regulate - Carding in Ontario, Now
This petition had 670 supporters
Ontario has a racism problem when it comes to policing. Carding, a process where police officers arbitrarily stop people on the street to collect their information, disproportionately targets Black and Indigenous people. This anti-Black, racist practice needs to end now.
The province announced that they would end carding, but instead, they've put a whole new set of rules in place that serve as as "how-to" guide for carding. Rather than solving the problem, it has the potential to make it worse.
Here are some shocking problems with the new rules:
- They allow police to stop people based on race if they fit the description of a suspect (this is an already an excuse often used to stop Black people)
- if an officer collects information from an individual in a manner that is racist or violates the rules there is no consequence to the officer, no recourse for the carded individual and the identifying information is retained in the police database.
- The current cache of identifying information that has been collected throughout the years in a racist manner will remain on file.
We have until December 12 to respond to the draft regulations.
Tell the Premier Kathleen Wynne and Member of Provincial Parliament Yasir Naqvi that the only way to do away with this racist practice is to actually do away with it. They need to end carding -- now.