Families call on Queen’s Park to implement mandatory cop drug tests

They each lost loved ones at the hands of police officers and on Wednesday families gathered outside Queen’s Park for a memorial.

Among the small but passionate group of people demanding change were family members of Michael MacIsaac, Sylvia Klibingaitis and Jeffrey Reodica.

The group, which calls themselves Affected Families of Police Homicide, are calling on the government to make changes to policing.

As well, several members of other community groups spoke out against police violence.

“When the police take the life of one of the people they are sworn to protect, that is violence,” writer and activist Desmond Cole said as he stood at the podium in front of the crowd.

Although his family wasn’t in attendance, those at the rally remembered the final moments in the life of Sammy Yatim’s.

“It is violence when a young man who is locked on a streetcar by himself is shot at nine times. People who are sworn to protect us every day stood and watched as that violence was being perpetrated and they did nothing and I think we have the responsibility to say that,” Cole said.

One of the changes the group is petitioning for is mandatory drug testing for all police officers across the province.

Jagmeet Singh, deputy leader of the NDP, spoke at the protest before presenting the petition to the legislature during the afternoon session.

He said one step the Ontario government can make now is to allow the province’s Special Investigations Unit to do its job without being hindered by red tape.

“In the words of the Ombudsman’s Report, the Ministry of the Attorney General was creating barriers and obstacles for the SIU to do their job,” Singh said. “That’s so unbelievably disgusting that our elected officials would, in any way, prohibit or prevent or create a barrier for the SIU to do their job. I can’t understand that.”

Singh said a second step would be working to build a stronger and healthier connection between the public and the police by addressing important issues like carding and street checks.

“Our police do a phenomenal job of keeping our community safe,” he said. “But there are tensions and some of those tensions can be alleviated.”

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