TORONTO A year after the death of George Floyd, one expert says Canadian cities have made little progress in addressing calls to defund the police. Julius Haag, a sociology and criminology professor at the University of Toronto, told CTV s Your Morning on Tuesday that no Canadian cities have successfully defunded their police force to date. However, he says there continues to be some momentum to potentially do so in certain regions. Many of our city councils have debated measures to defund the police, but we haven t actually seen any substantial cuts, Haag said. We have seen measures though to study the issue, and we have seen measures put forward towards alternative measures in terms of police accountability, but not substantial financial deductions, he added.
Defining defunding police committee gets important approval from police board
With approval from the board it can finally get to work. Halifax’s Board of Police Commissioners gave another green light to the committee that’s tasked with figuring out what people in Halifax think “defunding” the police should mean. After first deciding it needed an external committee to develop a definition for defunding the police in August, the board’s been slow to let it start working, but now things should start rolling. The defunding definition committee, chaired by professor and poet El Jones, provided its terms of reference and scope at Monday’s BoPC meeting.
Rethinking the role of police
In part two of our series looking at the role of police in society, IDEAS contributor Kyle G. Brown examines the use of police surveillance on citizens, the increased use of military tactics, and its struggles when responding to mental health emergencies.
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Kyle G. Brown ·
Posted: Feb 26, 2021 5:16 PM ET | Last Updated: February 26
A demonstrator holds her hands up and kneels in front of police at the Anaheim City Hall, in California. The peaceful protest occurred on June 1, 2020, over the killing of George Floyd by a police officer. Protesters took to streets around the world following Floyd s death, calling for an end to police violence.(Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images)
HALIFAX The rollout of the Halifax Regional Police s $3.7-million body camera program is being delayed following Monday s police commission meeting. Police had hoped to begin phase one of the program in the fall of 2021, but Halifax Board of Police Commissioners Chair Lindell Smith put forward the motion to delay the rollout of the body cams until they have more information. What we’ve asked for is to delay implementation to create the policies first and then look at implementation. Where before, it was let’s purchase the equipment, develop the policy while we are doing a rollout, said Smith.