Mark Saunders, a 32-year Toronto police veteran, was sworn-in today as the city’s new Police Chief, the first black man to hold the post.
The former Deputy Chief, Saunders was unanimously chosen by the seven-member civilian Police Services Board. He is widely seen as the right choice for some of the challenges Canada’s largest city is now confronting. He will be at the helm of the renewal of police-community relations.
Tensions have been growing over the years between several of the city’s minority communities, but Saunders has cautioned the black community that change won’t come overnight. One of the most contentious issues, is the practice known as ‘carding’.
This is when police stop and question people not suspected of a crime, but their information is recorded and kept. This seems to be practised most widely on people of colour and many are fed up with the policy. It’s wryly referred to as a DWB, ‘driving while black’.
At a protest on May 2, 2015, organized by ‘Black Lives Matter: Toronto‘, calls to end carding were peacefully and articulately conveyed. But in a speech at the recent African Canadian Summit in a Toronto suburb, Police Chief Mark Saunders said he would not halt the practice.
Councillor Shelly Carroll, a member of the Police Services Board, said in a recent interview in Toronto’s Globe & Mail newspaper, that “He knows the assignment.” She said, “That was the whole executive brief and job posting. Don’t apply if you’re not planning on making change and standing up where that needs to be made.”
The Toronto Police force is undertaking a year-long project with body cameras in the hope they will help provide transparency.
Mark Saunders was born in Britain to a Jamaican family. Life in Canada began in Montreal but the family eventually moved to Toronto.
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