Two years after the assassination of George Floyd, the Canadian government said it would soon order the RCMP to ban the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and neck restraints.
In an interview with CBC News on the second anniversary of Floyd’s death in police custody, Public Security Secretary Marco Mendicino said his office would instruct RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucky to stop using these controversial police techniques in the coming days.
Although the federal government does not control local police forces, Mendicino said he hopes his directive to the RCMP will serve as a reform plan for other police forces across the country.
“There are some police services that have already taken these steps, but we believe that with a new and modernized set of policies on the use of force by the RCMP, it can serve as a role model for other law enforcement agencies across the country.” Mendicino told the CBC.
Pressing for further details, the minister said he expects the RCMP to work to end the use of these techniques by the end of the year.
Figures obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin under the Access to Information Act show that the neck restraint technique – although rare – is still used in Canada.
The RCMP claims that the neck restraint technique applies pressure on both sides of a person’s neck without restricting the airway and causes a short period of unconsciousness, which allows police officers to handcuff a person.
Every three years, the RCMP says, employees must undergo refresher training on the use of neck and tear gas retention techniques.
Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino said he believed the RCMP could eliminate these police techniques by the end of the year. (Adrian Wyld / Canadian Press)
The RCMP is reviewing the use of neck restraints after Floyd’s assassination. Sometimes called the carotid restraint, “sleep retention,” or “blood suffocation,” it differs from the restraint used by the Minneapolis police officer who killed Floyd.
Floyd died after then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. Jurors found Chauvin guilty of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and he was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison. Chauvin is attractive.
According to an information note received from CBC News, the RCMP still allows its employees to place a knee on the upper body in some cases.
The Sunday Magazine23: 38 Why we need to know more than the name of George Floyd
Wednesday will mark two years since the assassination of George Floyd. Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunipa join Pia Chatopadhya to discuss the life of a man whose death below the knee of a Minneapolis police officer sparked an international debate about race and whose name became a symbol of racial injustice and police brutality in the United States. Their new book, His Name is George Floyd, shows how systemic racism has shaped Floyd’s life and how he has repeatedly tried to rise above it. Samuels and Olorunipa interviewed more than 400 people, including lawyers, teachers, family members and friends, to tell Floyd’s story, revealing all the ways he was loved and how he got to his fateful last day.
Commissioner Lucky said carotid detention was at the far end of the police use of force, along with the use of firearms.
“This is when something serious or death or bodily harm will happen,” she said in 2020.
In response to the news, Alain Babino, a consultant on public safety and racial profiling and a former RCMP official, said he was unsure whether lifting these controls was the right move. He said he wanted to see the evidence on which the government based its decision.
“Now, if we start limiting the tools for police intervention, we are limiting the opportunities they have,” Babino said. “If firearms become the only option, then it is reasonable to think that things can sometimes go very badly.
Non-police decisions are emerging
In an interview with CBC News, Mendicino said his government is committed to reforming law enforcement in Canada, a position that contradicts calls by some Black Lives Matter protesters for police to be deprived or even abolished.
Despite opposition from politicians, one police abolitionist said the movement had been successful in curbing police growth and, in some cases, reducing its footprint in some communities.
Robin Brown, a leader in the black community in Ottawa, said activists had managed to freeze police budgets and eliminate the presence of police officers in schools.
“Progress has been made, but there is definitely work to be done,” Brown said.
Brown and others say they would like to see communities redirect funds to non-police solutions – as a pilot project in Canada’s largest city.
This year, a $ 11 million pilot project was launched in Toronto after the death of Ejaz Chowdhury, D’Andre Campbell and Regis Korczynski-Package in meetings with the police. All three experienced mental health crises when they died.
In the pilot project, 911 and 211 operators linked some callers to public services for people in crisis, rather than the Toronto Police Department. It is considered one of the broadest alternative non-police response programs to emerge in Canada since Floyd’s assassination.
One of the organizations participating in the pilot project is Gerstein Crisis Center. Its staff maintains a crisis hotline and sometimes sends a mobile team to customers.
“Many communities, such as blacks, indigenous peoples and people of color, have already been traumatized (by the police),” said crisis intervention officer Darna Savario-Daly. “So having someone in uniform, having someone in power, someone coming in to say, you know, you have to come with us, that adds to the trauma.”
WATCH The National spoke with Denise Campbell about the pilot alternative to police:
The Toronto program aims to answer mental health calls without police
Following the deaths of Ejaz Choudry, D’Andre Campbell and Regis Korchinski-Paquet, the city of Toronto launched a $ 11 million program to create teams that can answer mental health calls without police officers. Ian Hanomansing spoke with Denise Campbell, the woman who led the effort.
Taibu, a public health center that focuses on the black community in Toronto, participates in the pilot. Its executive director, Liben Gebremikael, draws a direct line between the murder of Floyd, the death of Korczynski-Pake and other deaths of Canadians in police custody.
“(This) has put institutions and organizations in a position where they can no longer ignore the challenges that the community has been facing for generations,” he said.
For more stories about the experiences of black Canadians – from anti-black racism to success stories in the black community – see Being Black in Canada, a CBC project that black Canadians can be proud of.
(CBC)
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