A Rose by Any Other Name: Well-Being Checks, a New Manifestation of Discriminatory Policing?

• Author: Leila Gaind
• Position: Holds an Honours B. Arts Sc. and MA from McMaster University, and is currently in her third year of the JD program at the University of Victoria
• Pages: 3-26

APPEALVOLUME 25

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ARTICLE

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME: WELLBEING

CHECKS, A NEW MANIFESTATION OF

DISCRIMINATORY POLICING?

Leila Gaind *

CITED: (2020) 25 Appeal 3

ABSTRACT

Citizens and advocacy groups across Canada have called for an end to street checks, a

practice that involves the police stopping and questioning people on the street, absent

grounds for arrest or detention, to collect identifying information. Across jurisdictions,

the data reveal s that street checks disproportionately t arget Black, Indigenous, and other

racialized and margina lized persons. Police departments have historica lly justied these

racial dispa rities by framing street check s as a proactive policing tool, but in recent years,

the rhetoric around street check s has shifted. Now, street checks are a way for oc ers to

check in on the “well-being” of marginalized community members. In Vancouver, the

VPD has framed this practice a s promoting a socia l good, but this article contends that

well-being checks are another manifestation of arbitrary street checks. is article rst

examines how stre et checks and the discour se surrounding them have evolved in Toronto,

leading to the current moment, where departments face mounting pressure to justify

racial disparities in their data. Next, this article shifts its focus to the Downtown East

Side (DTES) of Vancouver, where police are facing a simila r public reckoning, and have

responded with one specic, novel justi cation: street checks are justi able as a proactive

policing tool that protects the i nterests of society’s most vulnerable. is ar ticle concludes

by arguing th at well-being checks may funct ion as a new manifestation of discr iminatory

policing, one that responds to a spec ic history and context but duplicates the exp erience

of an arbitrary s treet check.

* Leila Gaind holds an Honou rs B. Arts Sc. and MA from McM aster University, and is currently in her

third year of the JD program at the Un iversity of Victoria. She w ill complete her articles as a clerk

for the Ontario Superior Court. Leila sincerely thanks Professor Asad Kiyani for his supervision

and assistance with this pape r, and Sarah Pringle for her thoughtful a nd meticulous edits.

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APPEALVOLUME 25

I. INTRODUCTION

In recent years, police de partments across Canad a have faced scrutiny because ra cialized,1

Indigenous,2 and marginalized3 persons are disproportionately subject to the police

practice of “carding” or “street checks.” ese checks typically involve police stopping

and questioning people on the street, absent grounds for arrest or detention, to collect

identifying information, which is then entered and stored in a centralized database for

intelligence gathering purposes.4

Advocates defend the pract ice as a necessary tool for solving a nd preventing crime, but the

resulting harm to those inordinately targeted, who nd themselves subject to pervasive

and ongoing haras sment and surveillance, is unden iable.

5

Paired with mounting ev idence

regarding the inecacy of street checks,6 the practice is becoming increasingly dicult

for police departments to just ify.

e most recent, high-prole indictment comes from the Ontario Court of Appeal’s

Honourable Michael Tulloch. In January 2019, Justice Tulloch released his long-awaited

Report of the Independent Street Checks Review,7 which conrmed what critics of carding

have been saying for years: it is an ineective policing tool that comes at a tremendous

social cost, and as such, should be banned.8 While Justice Tulloch’s condemnation of

carding marks an importa nt turn in public discourse, it is unclear how his ndings will

1 “Racialization” refers to the processes th at produce and sustain race as a real and une qual

category.

2 As the Ontario Human Rights Commission exp lains, while Indigenous peopl e are also racialized,

this designation “fails to re cognize that many members of First Nati ons, Metis and Inuit

communities object to be ing referred to as a racial group,” and thus I will b e using the term

Indigenous separatel y to give recognition to the unique historic al experience of Indigenous

communities in Canada. See O ntario Human Rights Commission, “Un der Suspicion: Research

and consultation repor t on racial proling in Ontario” Ontario Human Rights Commission (April

2017), online: <http://ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/les/Under%20suspicion_research%20and%20

consultation%20rep ort%20on%20racia l%20proling%20in%20Onta rio_2017.pdf> at 15

archived at [https://perma.cc/9W ND-VU3P].

3 While street check data clearly indicates t hat racialized and Indigenous per sons are subject to

disproportionate p olice attention, the way in which pover ty and social marginalizatio n also

determine who is unfairly t argeted has been more dicult to tr ack. However, policing poverty is

a pervasive, inextricable problem that often aects those who experience intersecting forms of

oppression.

4 Law Union of Ontario, “Submissions to Toronto Police Servi ces Board Re: Community Contacts

Policy” Law Uni on of Ontario (25 May 2014), online: <http://www.lawunion.ca/tag /carding/>

archived at [https://perma.cc/YA6Z-Q4UB].

5 The harmful eects of racial prolin g are well-documented. As D esmond Cole stated, “because

of that unwanted scrutiny, that discriminator y surveillance, I’m a prisoner in my own cit y.”

SeeDesmond Cole, “T he Skin I’m In” Toronto Life (21 April 2015), online: <https: //torontolife.

com/city/life/skin-im-ive-interrogated-p olice-50-times-im-black/> archived at [https://perma.

cc/7R9V-ESSY].

6 CBC News, “An Ontario judge says carding doesn’t work . But will politicians listen?” CBC News

(4 January 2019), online: <https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-carding-review-

michael-tulloch-1.4964768> archived at [https://perma.cc/S576-SR2A].

7 The Honourable Michael T. Tulloch, Report of the Independent Street Checks Review (Queen’s

Printer for Ontario: 2018), online: <http://www.mcscs.jus .gov.on.ca/sites/default/les/content/

mcscs/docs/StreetChecks.pdf> archived at [https://perma.cc/ZA24-CKBP]. (“The Tulloch

Report”)

8 On April 17, 2019, Nova Scotia’s Justice Minister directed poli ce across the province to

immediately yet temporarily suspend the practice of street check s. This decision came shortl y

after a landmark repo rt indicated that Black peopl e in Halifax were being dispropor tionately

targeted. See Taryn Grant , “Nova Scotia suspends police stre et checks” The Star Halifax (17

April 2019), online: <https://www.thestar.com/halifax/2019/04/17/nova-scotia-announces-

immediate-suspension-of-p olice-street-checks.html> archived at [https://perma.cc/K6D6 -

SWZ6?type=image].