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

AuthorLeila Gaind
PositionHolds 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
Pages3-26
APPEALVOLUME 25
n
3
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.
4
n
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].

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT