Toronto police racially profile refugees and migrants, study claims

A small percentage of people Toronto police reported in a one-year period to the Canada Border Services Agency actually had outstanding immigration warrants, a new study claims.

According to the study, Toronto police reported 3,278 people to CBSA between November 2014 and June 2015, or approximately 100 every week. Between November 2014 and 2015, less than 7.1 per cent of those reported had outstanding immigration warrants.

The study says that this means Toronto Police Service is playing a role in federal immigration enforcement, which is not in its mandate.

The study was conducted by No One Is Illegal-Toronto, an organization that calls itself an “all-volunteer justice organization that fights for migrant worker communities in Toronto.”

“At the same time as the federal government is making congratulatory statements regarding the rightful welcoming of refugees, we have undeniable evidence that Toronto police racially profiles immigrants in the city based on their accent and skin colour to find out if they have full immigration status, and if they don’t, arrests them and hands them over to immigration enforcement,” explained Karl Gardner, an organizer with No One Is Illegal-Toronto.

Approximately 83.4 per cent of people that were reported in the same period were because officers were “suspicious” that the person may not have immigration status, the report states.

“TPS is doing federal immigration enforcement’s dirty work, using city resources to do something that’s not in their mandate. This violates Toronto’s Sanctuary City policy, and city council and the Toronto police must act to end racial profiling and this wasteful use of resources that results in detentions and deportations.”

Read the the full report here.

Toronto police chief Mark Saunders said the report is new to him, that he hasn’t seen it and couldn’t verify any of the facts in it.

“I can tell you when it comes to racially profiling, that’s not in our doctrines,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

There is no timeline as to when Toronto police will review the report. Until then, Saunders said he won’t speculate.

“I don’t want to deal with non-factual things,” he explained. “If it’s not accurate, I’ll dismiss it.”

CityNews hasn’t verified the statistics in the report and told Saunders that.

“I’m in that same boat. I’m sorry. So you try to compel me to answer something when we’re both standing here going ‘we don’t know if the report’s valid.’ Let’s cross that hurdle first, let’s make sure this report is in fact accurate. If that report is found to be accurate, I’ll be the first person to make the comments with respect to where the Toronto police stands,” he responded.

Critics have proposed that Toronto police develop a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which would require officers not to check a resident’s immigration status during interactions.

If the officer does get the status, the suggestion is that the officer not disclose the status to federal immigration officials.

Saunders said that’s already the policy. “Our procedure is very clear on ‘don’t ask,'” Saunders said.

The organization points out that Toronto police has reported victims and witnesses of crimes to the CBSA. It also says that when undocumented Torontonians are reported to CBSA, they may end up being indefinitely detained without charges or trial, or deported.

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