The Crudity of Carding
by Kenneth Bagnell
Toronto can take credit for a fair share of achievements and now includes a new one: it has created the word “carding” which will surely now make its way into future dictionaries. “Carding” means being stopped by the police without evidence and asked questions ranging from the elementary name and address, to the intrusive: your race, whether your parents separated and if you have tattoos are but a few examples. Roughly 300,000 people a year have the pleasure of this 20 minute intrusive quiz on the streets. (Since the police put their notes on cards, the new word “carding” has become the word of the year in Toronto.) One example is sufficient to illustrate its obnoxious nature: a young man named Desmond Cole, a writer. He was born in Red Deer, Alberta, to parents both of whom were professional nurses. He was valedictorian of his high school class and has had a sterling reputation. He
is also an achiever, accepted at Queen’s University, in Kingston. But even in that elegant city he was under frequent surveillance on the streets when driving his car, followed for no reason by local police: “At first I thought I was being paranoid – I began taking different roads to confirm my suspicions. No matter which route I took, there was usually a police cruiser in my rear-view mirror.” When he moved to Toronto it got worse and he was “carded” to a disgraceful degree. It’s revealed in his essay’s title: “The Skin I’m In: I’ve been interrogated by police more than 50 times – all because I’m black.” (It’s reliably reported that police management calls for a total carding quota of one million.)
Sadly but certainly not surprisingly, the “carding” strategy has no support whatever from those who should have been consulted before it was ever instituted in so many cities and towns of Canada. I mean the country’s criminologists. One, Scot Wortley of the faculty of the University of Toronto, ventures the fact-based opinion that if the police were stopping white youth with the same frequency they applied to black youth, they’d actually find more white youth guilty of a crime or two. If so, we can be sure there would be much verbal indignation in the air about “violating civil liberty.” But since almost all those “carded” are black there’s only mild concern from a modest body of the public. Still we should be appreciative of that – the fair minded citizens and the vigilant media.
As I write, Toronto’s new mayor, John Tory, a seasoned and intelligent politician, has at last finally come down on the right side of the issue — which every human rights person I know finds wise. He’s calling for carding’s cancellation. A few days ago, (June 8) on Toronto’s CBC Radio’s morning program he didn’t put a foot wrong: he said it was taking too long to revise the carding issue; he wisely supported the competence of the new chief who probably must readjust his view of carding. As Tory put it: “I just came to believe it was best to change course.” Why the delay? Because Tory is a reflective politician, carefully weighing all aspects of all problems. The police should recognize that his decision has come from weeks of analysis. Often they don’t grasp or respect the crucial value of a seriously analytical mayor. My experience years ago, as an editorial board member of two large Toronto papers, (The Star and The Globe) is that they – the police – saw at that time, all issues as black and white. Daring to criticize them in, say the 1960s, almost always provoked police overseers (their boards) to wring their hands and start wailing as one did at me: “if you guys keep on criticizing the police, they’ll start quitting.” They didn’t quit. And they won’t. Why? Because the pay and benefits are too good to walk away from.
My speculation is that Desmond Cole’s article was the proverbial final straw moving John Tory, quite emotionally, to the promise he made a few days ago. “Enough.” he said, “It’s time to acknowledge that there is no real way to fix a practice which has come to be regarded as illegitimate, disrespectful and hurtful. It’s better to start over with a clean slate.” He said this at a rare Sunday press conference as if he had to clear his conscience. Good for him. But: it’s not over until it’s over. He will introduce a motion at the upcoming meeting of the police services board, a motion he did not expect he would make: asking for a permanent end to “carding.” Anyone who reads Desmond Cole’s article will understand how unfair, if not an outright disgrace, the vigorous practice of carding has become not just in Toronto but in other cities in Canada. There’s bound to be one slightly awkward sensitivity: the recently appointed chief of police, an honorable man of vision and integrity, Mark Saunders, was born in Jamaica, and is a member of Toronto’s black community. He, like former chief Bill Blair, supports carding. He is now in a sensitive spot but I speculate he will, quietly but honorably, support Mayor Tory’s sensible perspective. Moreover, though John Tory holds the highest civic office of Mayor, he is but one voice on the police board of not quite ten members.
There will be strong and strident opposition from the Toronto union which carries considerable influence. As with most unions, it can always be far more strident than can management or politicians. Its leader, Mike McCormack (ironically son of a justly respected former Chief) is not shy of being aggressive. When word came down last weekend of Tory’s decision to move to ending carding, McCormack more or less blew his top or as unionists often do — pretended to. ”What the hell do you want us to do,” he asked rhetorically, “when we are out there and engaging the public.” He continued this way apparently to divert the debate from the police carding to the safer generalization of “police and public interaction.” His heated attitude will not be helpful. Union leaders should be constructive and thereby may be influential, when in bringing their perspective to the table, they abide by the old dictum skilled politicians live by: “When the action’s hot keep the rhetoric cool.”
All my past blogs are archived on my website: your comments are welcome there: www.kennethbagnell.com.