The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), the Peel Regional Police (PRP) and the Peel Police Services Board (PPSB) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) committing to develop and implement legally binding remedies to identify and address systemic racism in policing, promote transparency and accountability, and enhance Black, other racialized and Indigenous communities’ trust in policing throughout Peel Region.
Community engagement sessions on measures to address systemic racism in Peel policing
March 14, 2022
The Peel Regional Police (PRP) and the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) are holding online community engagement sessions to hear from community members on measures to address systemic racism and discrimination in policing in Peel Region.
From March 14 to April 18, 2022, people who live or work in Mississauga and Brampton can register to participate in one of four online community engagement sessions to be held on March 28, April 7, 13, and 19, via Zoom. Each session will run from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Community participants will have an opportunity to provide feedback on lived experiences and the concerns and issues they face with policing in Peel, during facilitated discussions in a formal and respectful environment.
The focus of the discussions will be on the OHRC’s seven key principles on eliminating racial profiling, from its Policy on eliminating racial profiling in law enforcement. Under the Ontario Human Rights Code, police services have an obligation to the public and people they serve to ensure that service delivery is fair and free from discriminatory practices. The OHRC’s seven key principles are an important driving force to ensure that this happens, and has already received community support as reported in the PRP’s 2021 survey results on policing in Peel.
The seven principles are:
- Acknowledgement: Substantively acknowledging the reality of racial profiling, including the impact it has on individual and community well-being and trust in law enforcement, and recognizing the specific impact on Indigenous peoples and racialized communities and individuals
- Engagement: Active and regular engagement with diverse Indigenous and racialized communities to obtain frank and open feedback on the lived experience of racial profiling and effective approaches to combatting it
- Policy guidance: Adopting and implementing all appropriate standards, guidelines, policies and strict directives to address and end racial profiling in law enforcement
- Data collection: Implementing race data collection and analysis for identifying and reducing disparity, and managing performance
- Monitoring and accountability: Regularly monitoring racial profiling, and setting robust internal accountability mechanisms at the governance, management and operational levels
- Organizational change: Implementing multi-faceted organizational change (for example, in relation to training, culture, hiring, incentive structures etc.) consistent with the OHRC’s guide Human rights and policing: Creating and sustaining organizational change
- Multi-year action plan: Forming anti-racist action plans featuring initiatives geared toward achieving short- and long-term targets for advancing all of these principles.
Recommendations derived from these discussions will inform binding commitments that PRP and Peel Police Services Board will make for human rights organizational changes to address systemic racism in policing in Peel Region.
The OHRC encourages people who live or work in Mississauga and Brampton to continue using their voice to drive change by participating in these meetings.
2021 Community survey results on perceptions of, and experiences with, Peel Regional Police
December 16, 2021
On December 16, 2021, the Peel Regional Police (PRP) released its community survey report on systemic racism. The report shows that over half of survey respondents agree policing in Peel Region needs to be reformed. The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) collaborated with PRP to develop the survey and advised on qualitative data analysis for the report.
The report provides analysis of the results of the September 2021 online community survey conducted by PRP and the Peel Police Services Board. The survey, on community perceptions of and experiences with Peel Regional Police, which was open to people who live and work in Peel Region received 1,102 valid responses.
Fifty-eight per cent of survey respondents had an interaction with the PRP in the past two years. People who identified as Black and South Asian had disproportionately more interactions with Peel Police, particularly related to stops, questioning and arrests.
The survey shows that Peel residents want to see more accountability and transparency in police interactions with the public. It found that 87% of respondents agree that officers should be required to intervene if they witness misconduct by other officers, and 84% agree that police body-worn cameras are a tool to enhance accountability and transparency.
The survey also shows significant dissatisfaction with PRP’s response to mental health calls. Only 38% agree that police are effective when responding to mental health incidents.
Nearly 60% of respondents agree that the seven key principles in the OHRC’s Policy on eliminating racial profiling in law enforcement provide a suitable framework for making positive organizational change and advancing respect for human rights in policing in Peel.
The survey and report are part of PRP’s Human Rights Project, which is part of PRP’s commitment under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with its board and the OHRC to identify and address systemic racism and discrimination in policing in Peel Region.
Community survey on policing in Peel Region
September 15, 2021
PRP, the PPSB and the OHRC are working together to develop recommendations to address systemic racism in policing. As part of this process, PRP has launched a survey asking for community feedback on experiences with, and perceptions of, Peel Regional Police. The OHRC encourages people who live, work or visit Peel Region to take the survey, which is confidential and anonymous.
Note: The PRP survey is now closed.
The PRP, PPSB, OHRC Memorandum of Understanding
A memorandum of understanding is a formal agreement between two or more parties.
The OHRC has a Memorandum of Understanding with the PRP and the PPSB to work together to address systemic racism and discrimination in PRP’s service and employment practices. The MOU represents the starting point for the relationship between PRP, PPSB and the OHRC and outlines the scope, purpose and mutually accepted expectations of the parties as they work to achieve a common objective. While not a legal agreement in itself, an MOU signals the parties’ willingness to work towards a binding agreement.
Within the scope of the MOU, the OHRC is providing human rights guidance to the PRP and PPSB on their multi-year human rights organizational change project, named the Human Rights Project. The MOU also sets out some issues that are beyond the scope of the project. For example, the project is not intended to resolve individual complaints filed with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO).
In accordance with the MOU, the parties will work collaboratively to adopt legally binding remedies that will address structural changes, the role of policing, policy and procedural changes, accountability and monitoring, and be responsive to communities’ calls for de-escalation, de-tasking and defunding. The recommended activities will be guided by the seven key principles in the OHRC’s Policy on eliminating racial profiling in law enforcement.
The parties recognize that it is essential to hear from and work with Black, other racialized and Indigenous communities and allies, to consider appropriate ways to address systemic racism in policing in Peel Region. The MOU includes an expectation that the PRP and PPSB, with the support of the OHRC, will engage with the communities they serve to draft recommended solutions that challenge systemic racism and discrimination in their service and employment practices.
Under the MOU, the proposed agreement with recommendations will be brought to the PPSB and OHRC Commissioners for approval. Following approval, the parties will jointly approach the HRTO to request a consent order. Once the HRTO grants the order the recommendations will become legally binding public interest remedies.
Legally binding remedies
A consent order is an order made under section 45.9 of the Human Rights Code that requires compliance with the terms of an agreed-on settlement. Orders issued by adjudicators at the HRTO are legally binding and enforceable.
The HRTO can order a wide range of remedies in the public interest which can have an impact on more people than just the person making the human rights application and the person and/or organization responding to it.
An independent monitoring body will be assigned to monitor compliance with the order. If a breach occurs, a contravention application can be filed with the HRTO to enforce the agreement. Where the HRTO determines that a party has contravened a settlement, the HRTO may make any order it considers appropriate to remedy the contravention.
Tracking compliance
Legally binding agreements in policing tend to cover a wide range of topics, such as data collection, use of force, accountability, stops and searches, training, recruitment, etc., so tracking compliance with each requirement of an agreement is a critical task. Typically, an independent monitor does this, and conducts compliance reviews to assess whether the party responsible for complying with the requirements of each remedy is in full compliance, in partial compliance or out of compliance.
Depending on the nature of the specific remedy, compliance can entail amending or creating new policies, procedures and directives; providing training that relates to realizing specific remedies (e.g. use of force training which emphasizes de-escalation techniques); demonstrating that a remedy is being is carried out in actual practice, etc.
When full compliance with all remedies has been achieved for a specified period of time – typically two consecutive years – the monitor’s term comes to an end, as does the agreement.