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Good morning! Council meets today for the first regular - but still virtual - meeting during the COVID-19 emergency. The agenda is absolutely packed (seriously, 185 items). The debate that will take centre stage today is future of policing in this city: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/06/29/toronto-council-to-debate-defunding-the-police-reforms-today.html
At the link above you can both watch the council livestream and follow along with my updates/analysis all in one place (thanks, wonderful digital desk)
On policing, there has been a lot leading up to this. Here, I wrote about the protests and pressure mounting ahead of today's debate: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/06/28/protests-pressure-mount-on-council-to-defund-police-ahead-of-council-meeting.html
I also wrote this explainer on what defunding the police really means and what it would take to do it in Toronto: https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2020/06/28/can-city-council-abolish-the-toronto-police-force-eight-key-questions-as-council-debates-defunding-the-police-this-week.html
Local issues, as they have in the U.S., have ignited this debate. On Friday, we heard verdict for Toronto cop Michael Theriault and brother Christian in beating of Dafonte Miller. Here's @wendygillis' post-trial piece: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/06/26/judgment-in-dafonte-miller-beating-case-to-be-streamed-live-friday-morning.html
Council has yet to get going but I'll let you know when it does. The mayor's policing item is his first key item so that will be first up for debate after some initial business
And council is underway. There is one tricky logistical thing I'm watching/will try to explain. So there is a new business item from Tory that includes his recommendations for policing reforms. That's the key item up first. Matlow's proposals are a separate member motion
Member motions are usually dealt with after lunch on day 2. And Matlow's motion requires a 2/3rds majority vote to even be debated at this meeting. If it doesn't get that support, it will be referred to Tory's executive committee for a later debate
Tory's proposal automatically gets debated because under council procedures the mayor is allowed to introduce new business items. Again, not so with Matlow's motion. Council could decide to hear these items together, but that would, given leanings of council, need Tory's support
For a Monday morning and comparatively with other virtual council meetings, there are a LOT of people watching this stream - just hit 800 (h/t @EVYSTADIUM)
If you're just tuning in, aren't familiar with council and are like, what the heck is happening... this is normal for the start of a council meeting. They introduce items from the committees to be debated, hear petitions and other housekeeping. Stay tuned and stick with me
An important update: Making tea, rather than getting coffee, in terms of caffeine levels required for this day, will certainly have been a mistake
Crawford now reading petition from Scarborough residents concerned with council plan to build modular housing in their area saying it will cause their way of life to be "destroyed" and impact their "safety, security and peaceful social life." They will get to this item later.
There is similar opposition to the modular housing site at the former 14 Division police station downtown. Earlier story from @KopunF: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/06/02/toronto-has-picked-two-sites-for-new-modular-housing-for-the-homeless-heres-what-they-look-like.html
OK here we go. Matlow is moving to withdraw his motion. He says he plans to move his motions as amendments to the mayor's item (which means he wouldn't need a 2/3rd vote)
OK council allows Matlow to withdraw his motion by show of hands. What that means is Tory's item will be up first and Matlow will move to request police cut at least 10 per cent of their budget in 2021 as amendments on *that* item. He'll need a simply majority to get that passed
Essentially, Matlow just bypassed a hurdle to even have his defunding motion - which the mayor has indicated he is opposed to - debated with very little effort. They're handling some more housekeeping and I'll let you know when the debate starts
Wow, more than 1,100 people are watching now. Even assuming a bunch of city staff have to tune into this meeting to follow the agenda, that's a lot. If you know someone who wants live analysis, send them here https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/06/29/toronto-council-to-debate-defunding-the-police-reforms-today.html
As usual - and it pains me to say this - seeing a lot of uninformed opinion in my mentions about policing, being Black in this city and other racist stuff. I'm going to thread some things I think will be helpful context for this debate and how we got here
My Star colleague @Jleerankin has spent a big part of his amazing career looking at policing and racial profiling. He wrote this award-winning series on how young Black men are more likely to be stopped and questioned by police https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/knowntopolice.html
Consider the story of Dale James, told by Jim. As a privileged white woman, I cannot relate to this experience at all. It is a difficult read: https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/08/14/the-man-police-cant-stop-carding.html
The @OntHumanRights Commission found that between 2013 and 2017, "a Black person in Toronto was nearly 20 times more likely than a White person to be involved in a fatal shooting by the Toronto Police Service." Here's that report: http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/public-interest-inquiry-racial-profiling-and-discrimination-toronto-police-service/collective-impact-interim-report-inquiry-racial-profiling-and-racial-discrimination-black
Here's my story about how the city fell behind on its own plans to help youth at-risk of violence: https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2018/10/12/amid-spike-in-shootings-toronto-is-falling-behind-on-its-own-plans-to-curb-youth-violence.html
Here's a nuanced story from my wonderful colleauge @powellbetsy that addresses systemic issues underlying violence that is still devastating lives and communities in this city: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/06/24/man-arrested-after-gunfight-at-north-york-vigil-is-toronto-rapper-who-was-on-bail-and-parole.html
There are many Black scholars and others who have documented a long history of systemic racism in this and other Canadian cities (I'm currently reading Policing Black Lives by @policingblack and can say it's incredibly well researched)
Council is now going to debate proposals on policing. First, there will be questions of staff.
Crawford asks what a 10 per cent cut would be in dollars. The city manager confirms it's in excess of $100 million but doesn't seem to have this answer ready (It's $122 million)
Crawford asks how many service members would be impacted (no one is suggesting this should lead to layoffs specifically as council can't direct that). City manager Chris Murray notes over 80% of budget goes to salaries and benefits (it's 89%)
Crawford asking about layoffs, suggesting by law it's not very easy. City manager does not have this background. Says it's more complex than other contracts. It's allowed under legislation, police contract. I wrote about it here: https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2020/06/28/can-city-council-abolish-the-toronto-police-force-eight-key-questions-as-council-debates-defunding-the-police-this-week.html
City manager clarifies the budget cut is actually $107 million. I think they're basing that on the net budget not total spending (which would be a $122 million cut). So let's consider that as a range right now
Pasternak asking how many officers from marginalized communities, female officers would be lost if there are layoffs. So far, these questions from some of Tory's closest allies seem geared to undermining Matlow's pending motions on defunding the police
Again, no one is suggesting layoffs that I've heard. Council doesn't have the ability to tell the police how to specifically spend their budget. These questions are suggesting some 1,000 layoffs but police service has not confirmed that estimate
There are some issues with staff connecting to audio and it appears there doesn't seem to be a lot of prep for these types of questions from council
Answering Pasternak's question, city manager Murray clarifies that nothing council does today changes the 2021 budget. Councillors can make requests for budget requests to be at a certain target and council debates budget later
Perks asks whether over the past decade the police spending per capita has increased by more than 10 per cent when adjusted for inflation but staff can't connect to audio so we'll come back to it (Perks is correct)
Ainslie asks police chief Mark Saunders about making race-based data public. Saunders says it will be. Ainslie wants to know if service's use-of-force procedures are public. Saunders says they normally don't release their "playbook" so the "criminal element" cant "circumvent" it
Fun fact! I have confirmed the council chamber capacity at city hall is about 235 people. There are currently over 1,600 people watching online. Democracy in action!
Grimes asks how Matlow's motion would even be in order. Perks notes several items are before council even today that impact the budget.
Saunders confirms 10% cut equivalent to laying off 1,000 officers. Says process would take "quite some time." Grimes suggests all investigative services would be cut. Saunders says would be hypothetical but concerned he couldn't meet province's adequacy & effectiveness standards
Saunders, answering Grimes questions, says he doesn't support "arbitrary cuts" and confirms he believes there is systemic racism within the Toronto Police Service
Grimes really pushed Saunders on if the police really suffers from systemic racism. Saunders assured him that like many aspects of our society it does
Wong-Tam asking now about recommendations previously made to transform the police, including amalgamating police divisions, that weren't pursued and the freeze on hiring and promotions not actually lasting three years (hiring resumed the following year https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2017/08/10/toronto-police-board-backtracks-on-hiring-freeze-plans-to-hire-80-officers.html)
Saunders now pushing back on a KPMG report about the police service as Wong-Tam asks about numbers presented there about non-emergency responses. He evades another question saying there has been much progress
Saunders says the proposal from Tory to equip all officers with body-worn cameras by January comes with a $2.5M cost
Ford now asking questions (glad to see he seems to have fully recovered from positive COVID-19 diagnosis). Asks the very friendly question if the force is always looking to do better as a force and can they do better. Saunders, obviously, says yes
Filion asks if police service can fire officers for misconduct. Staff say there is a provincial process - investigation, tribunal, penalties decided. Chief doesn't just unilaterally fire people
McKelvie asks how many officers per capita Toronto has compared to other cities. Saunders is prepared for this question. Says 160/100,000 in Toronto compared to 424 in NYC, Montreal at 223 and 198 in Vancouver.
"Gone are the days where we should be doing absolutely everything," Saunders said about increasing partnerships to enhance community safety and those pieces aren't moving as quickly as they would like
Saunders says they're regularly enhancing their response to mental health crises. Mayor's proposals asks for alternative non-police proposals to deal with those types of calls (where a weapon is not involved)
Cressy asks if the board can provide a line-by-line police budget to council. Board chair Jim Hart says it's possible and will want to package it in a way that would understandable to the public
Police have budgeted $2.5M this year for body-worn cameras, staff clarify, which is a partial budget. A full-year cost is $5M, staff say. The ten-year cost now estimated at $50M, which has been reduced from earlier estimates
I'm not clear from the staff answers whether the $2.5M budgeted for body-worn cameras this year covers what the mayor is proposing - everyone equipped with them by year's end. I'll try to get that clarified myself
Thompson asks board chair Hart and Saunders how they feel about Tory's proposals. Hart: "I think the report before us today is very helpful in terms of moving the organization forward." Saunders: "I'm fine with any type of reform as long as it's done in a meaningful way."
Thompson asks Saunders if what the mayor proposed would address systemic racism and curb costs. "Yes would be a great answer," Thompson says. Saunders does not give him that simple a response, but says meaningful discussion and not in a "punitive" way could be really good
Perks is back now with his spending question. Staff say the police budget has increased 19.4% (gross, not per capita) since 2013. Other services have increased by 13%. Perks demanding to know per capita numbers over last decade. Staff are apparently working on that
Update: Tea is not enough.
Fletcher asks Saunders why people are so mad at them. He says "egregious" incidents across the globe has sparked call for change
Bailao tries to get Saunders to say what an officer would get in severance if they're laid off. Saunders can't say. It's on an individual basis. This again seems aimed at undermining Matlow's pending motions to defund
She has been hearing directly from residents who want the 10% Matow is proposing be cut and more https://twitter.com/mattcampagna/status/1277598433583472642?s=21 https://twitter.com/mattcampagna/status/1277598433583472642
And gloves are off https://twitter.com/JoshMatlow/status/1277637175878844418?s=20
New followers, hello! Welcome. Thanks for reading. First of all: Yes, council is always like this. Second, I will try to get to as many questions as I can while following the debate. Please be patient.
Nunziata asks how the province determines "adequate" policing levels. This, staff explain, is spelled out in legislation. You can read more about that here: https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2020/06/28/can-city-council-abolish-the-toronto-police-force-eight-key-questions-as-council-debates-defunding-the-police-this-week.html
Update: I have pre-ordered myself cookies tomorrow from a local small business.
Nunziata asks Saunders, are you not hearing from communities people want more police officers? Saunders: "That is correct."
Council is now taking the normal lunch break. Meeting and this debate resume at 2PM. See you then!
Council is back from lunch. They're doing some housekeeping and then will go back to the policing debate. They're still on question of staff. Then there will be speakers on the item.
This is something, from Queen’s Park via great @robertbenzie https://twitter.com/robertbenzie/status/1277654199539511300?s=21 https://twitter.com/robertbenzie/status/1277654199539511300
Perks asks Saunders about body-worn cameras. The full cost once implemented is $5 million, police reiterate. So if fully implemented in January the increase in the 2021 budget would be $5 million.
Matlow is now moving his motions - to ask the province to change the rules to allow council more direct control over the police budget, provide a line-by-line budget to council and bring forward a 2021 budget request that is at least 10% less than this year's
Matlow says he has been hearing from people he admittedly has not heard properly before. That they've told him about Dafonte Miller, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Andrew Loku. He said they clearly aren't satisfied with "tinkering" and reforms
Matlow says his motion has been mischaracterized. Here's some of what he just said:
Matlow: "What I'm asking you to do is show courage"
Wong-Tam now asking Matlow friendly questions. Matlow clarifies he is not asking for a cut of the 2020 budget. He's asking for the police to bring forward a budget *request* next year that is 10% less than this year's budget
Matlow says he supports much of the mayor's proposals, but does not support increasing the budget for body-worn cameras
Matlow also has a motion to change the mayor's first proposal, making it more specifically about a non-police response and expanding situations in which that might apply. He also moves to remove the item on body-worn cameras
Carroll is doing a somewhat interpretive replay of what happened to Andrew Loku. She is trying to make a point about need for a different mental health response
Wong-Tam, among other things, moves to request the board ban use of deadly force and military-style weapons against civilians
It's important to understand the language in these motions. Council can't direct police to change the way they operate, only request
Wong-Tam: "The defund movement is really about asking all of us to reimagine what public safety looks like"
Wong-Tam motion also asks province to remove appeal opportunities if council wants to make police budget changes. She also wants to see mental health response without police involved considered
Here's the Wong-Tam motion regarding mental health response:
Filion has motions giving auditor general more access to conduct audits of police and to ask the province to change new legislation yet to come into force to expand what's possible in the event of police misconduct (including more instances of suspension without pay)
Ainslie has a motion requesting the board to post the Toronto Police's use of force policy publicly
Pasternak: “This is a roadmap for getting stuff done. This is a responsible, clear response of reforming police, keeping our community safety and not taking an X-Acto knife to our police budget and putting all our communities at risk." Says he'll support mayor's motion
Perks also moves to delete the proposal to implement body-worn cameras across the force and use that money "to address the root causes of safety and security problems"
Perks now challenging councillors who would not defund police but were happy to support multiple proposals to defund Pride Toronto. He says every budget brought before council "started out with an arbitrary number" of how much Tory was willing to raise property taxes
Perks, on criticism Matlow's motion uses an arbitrary number:
Bailao says one main message she heard from residents was consistent - need to "relocate" funds to non-policing supports. Avoids saying "defund". Appears she'll support mayor's motion, not Matlow's. Her residents have been emailing and calling her asking her to defund the police
Bradford says he's been taking feedback from folks in Beaches-East York, apparently dismissing some messages he's received: "I'm not talking about the form emails or the social media campaigns. I'm talking about next-level engagement."
Bradford says he'll support "most" of the amendments before them. I haven't heard him say something specifically about Matlow's motion
Thompson thanks Matlow for his 10% motion but says he won't be supporting it
Layton speaking in favour of Matlow's motion and how it is important to listen to calls to defund and demilitarize the police. A more significant, rather than symbolic step is needed, he said.
Grimes using his speech to reference work he has done with the Argos and Pinball Clemons.
Minnan-Wong says it's not "responsible" to cut more than $100 million out of the police budget without saying where. Provincial legislation does not allow council to specify where. Matlow has also asked for that to be changed.
We are nearing a vote here on the mayor's policing item. I believe Tory will be the last speaker.
Tory speaking now by acknowledging ongoing existence of anti-Black racism and anti-Indigenous racism in the city. Says he'll support parts of Matlow's and Wong-Tams motions and hopes to vote on them separately
Tory said his proposals, if approved, would “set in motion a process that should bring about the kind of change at the pace of change that is needed in response to the people who have marched in the street and have been in touch with us in our offices and so on.”
Tory is characterizing his recommendations as a more careful and thoughtful way of eventually reducing the police budget and achieving “fair change.”
Matlow is now going to question Tory
Matlow and Tory are arguing about what is arbitrary or not. Tory says his reforms will be "sensible" and not based on a debate around a number. They're going to vote now
First vote on Holyday's motion to delete all the mayor's proposals and replace them with his own that don't offer any proposals for reform loses 1-23
One of Matlow's motions to amend the mayor's proposal on alternative community responses and expand the types of calls that may not require a police response fails 9-15 without the mayor's support
They're recording every vote virtually which takes a long time so bear with me. They have yet to vote on Matlow's 10% motion
Matlow's motion to delete the mayor's proposal on body-worn cameras fails 6-18. Asking the police to implement body-worn cameras for all officers has not yet passed but it now seems sure to
OK here we go - they're going to vote now on Matlow's defund motion
First they're going to vote on the first part asking the province to allow the city to have more direct control over the police budget
The first part of Matlow's motion to ask the province to give the city more direct control over how the police budget is spent carries 22-2 (Ford, Holyday against)
BREAKING Matlow's motion asking the Toronto _olice to bring forward a 2021 budget request with at least a 10 per cent cut, and for it to be spent on community supports instead, fails. Vote is 8-16:
Wong-Tams motion on police use of force and military-style weapons fails 8-16
Wong-Tam's motion asking the province to amend rules that allow decisions on police budget matters to be overturned by the Ontario Civilian Police Commission carries 22-2
That is the first time I had to make my own vote tally on the fly without @TorontoCouncil and I hope @GraphicMatt is proud
Wong-Tam motion on working on alternative, non-police emergency response to crisis calls fails 10-14
NEW from me: Motion to defund the police fails at Toronto city council https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2020/06/29/toronto-city-council-votes-against-cutting-2021-police-budget-by-10-per-cent.html
Cressy's motion asking for a line-by-line budget breakdown immediately is approved by show of hands
Tory's proposal to ask police to implement body-worn cameras for all police officers by Jan. 1 carries 17-7. Ainslie, Cressy, Fletcher, Layton, Matlow, Perks and Wong-Tam are against
On the rest of Tory's proposals as amended by all those previous motions, council votes 22-2 (Holyday, Matlow opposed). That is it for this policing debate. Full story up soon.
Council is now moving to debate CafeTO item to allow restaurants and bars to use public space during the pandemic because they want to have the rules in place for Canada Day
I went away to finish my updated story. Council is now done for the day after approving the CafeTO plan. They're back tomorrow at 9:30AM. I'm going outside now and will have more for you then!
