We want to live in a city that supports people, not police
October 14 2022
We are here today – outside of a municipal debate that is inaccessible to those most impacted by city politics – to demand a vision for Toronto that includes all of its residents.
We are a group of individuals and organizations here to demand a safer, more liveable city that prioritizes ending economic, racial, social and gendered inequalities, instead of policing them. We contain multitudes: Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ, migrant, poor and working class communities, health care and harm reduction workers, encampment residents and precarious tenants, massage workers and sex workers, and more, who are concerned with Tory’s status-quo vision for Toronto, the lack of transparency about alternatives, and the need for a new direction that centres the wellbeing of everyone who lives here.
In the wake of the historic Black-led protests after the police killings of George Floyd, Regis Korchinski Paquet, DeAndre Campbell and Sheffield Matthews, and amidst growing public support for defunding and abolishing the police, Tory ignored the demands of Torontonians by continuing to pour funding into policing, rather than investing in healthy communities and real safety. It was under Tory’s leadership that Toronto chose to spend $2 million violently displacing encampment residents instead of housing them.
People in this city are suffering needlessly as a result of political decisions that can – and must – be changed. More Toronto residents than ever are one paycheck away from a crisis. Shelters are turning people away and a drug poisoning crisis is killing over 500 people a year, rents are up by 20% from 2021 and countless tenants live in fear of eviction, and even ambulance access and frontline services are in jeopardy. This abandonment is a choice, not an accident; the city’s police budget is consuming public funds that ought to be resourcing our communities. While life-saving services are dangerously underfunded, approximately 25% of taxpayer dollars were allotted to the Toronto Police Services (TPS) according to the most recently available data. In 2022, TPS received almost 10% of the municipal budget, a 2.3% increase from 2021. To put this in perspective, TPS received almost double the combined funds allotted to the Public Library, Public Health, the Toronto Region Conservation Authority, the Toronto Community Housing Agencies, and the Association of Community Centers.
For decades, Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities, mad and disabled people, queer and trans people, and poor, houseless, and street-involved Torontonians have faced unacceptable levels of police surveillance, harassment, and violence – too often with deadly results. We deserve better than a city that rewards the TPS – an institution five times more likely to use force against Black Torontonians than white ones – with a 25$ million budget increase.
We know that our city and communities would be so much safer and healthier if this money – and more! – were reallocated to fund permanent housing for our unhoused neighbors; supports for residents in crisis; after-school programs for our kids; ambulances and healthcare services; women’s shelters and violence prevention; real decriminalization and a regulated safe drug
supply program; robust, accessible, and free public transit infrastructure; parks, community centres, and thriving public spaces; and so much more. Another Toronto is possible – one that prioritizes people over profits and supports communities rather than surveilling them.
Myron Demkiw has been appointed the new police chief – a cop who was directly involved in the violent raid of a lesbian bathhouse and whose stated focus on “guns and gangs” should alarm anyone concerned with the long history of the Toronto Police’s legacy of profiling and brutalizing Black communities. The new strong mayor system limits the ability of city councilors to check mayoral powers and undermines local democracy. Toronto is at a crucial turning point. We refuse to accept a “business as usual” approach that leaves so many behind. We recognize that our demands amount to a complete re-imagining of how money is allocated in our city; that is exactly what we are fighting for.
We are coming together today, as community organizers and organizations, to insist that it’s possible and necessary to divest from punishing vulnerable communities and to invest in a liveable city for all of us.
No Pride in Policing Coalition
No More Silence
Showing Up for Racial Justice Toronto
Jane-Finch Action Against Poverty
Disability Justice Network of Ontario
Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction
Butterfly: Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network
Maggie’s Toronto
No One Is Illegal Toronto
Policing-Free Schools
Bloordale Community Response
Doctors for Defunding Police
