18:00:31 To begin, I just want to do a little bit of housekeeping.
18:00:36 Excuse me. For those of you that require a live transcript option.
18:00:41 This can be found in the bottom right of your screen labeled live transcript, where you have the option to either show subtitles or to hide some titles.
18:00:52 So if you have any other technical questions, you can ask these in the q amp a tab on the bottom of your zoom screen.
18:01:00 Also please note that the chat box has been disabled.
18:01:05 We recognize that we have obligations and responsibilities as settlers on this land.
18:01:11 We acknowledge our obligation to insist our political representatives honor their tree and other agreement responsibilities with indigenous nations to express our condolences to First Nations may TNNU at people's for the wrongs of the past and to redouble
18:01:27 our efforts aimed at repairing past wrongs. As we actively engaged in caring and supportive communion with indigenous peoples in the present on a more personal note, as the father of a daughter who is a member of the Mohawk nation and as a dog a beside
18:01:42 oka come back.
18:01:44 And as the descendant of settlers who came to this land as immigrants. I recognize and acknowledge all of our needs, as people of color, as people from European background wherever it is that we've come from originally, that, that we need to pay the proper
18:02:02 respect to the Mississauga of the credit. The anish Novick the Chippewa the homeowner Shawnee, and the one that peoples of this territory that we now call Toronto, and we are you know grateful for the opportunity to be here.
18:02:19 We are appreciative of the sacrifices that have been made for us to be here. And we recognize our role in working together to make this land. A peaceable, and a and a warm and inviting place for everyone who lives here, while respecting the indigenous
18:02:36 inhabitants, who were here first.
18:02:39 And so, in a spirit of healing and reconciliation.
18:02:46 I am now going to call upon.
18:02:50 And it is my honor to introduce Jamie Cooper Wilson, a respected elder of African indigenous heritage and the founder and executive director of the silver shoe Historical Society, a not for profit organization, which is an affiliate of the Ontario Historical
18:03:07 Society.
18:03:09 The Bethel union pioneer cemetery was restored under her direction and it is the home site of her organizations operations JT is also a sitting member of the Ontario Historical Society's board of directors and the co chair of the cemetery preservation
18:03:24 and Defense Committee. And so she's here joining us today to bring her greetings and and their blessings upon what we're doing so. Thank you, Jeannie for being here and joining us this evening.
18:03:38 Thank you so much and welcome everyone.
18:03:41 Greetings I do apologize I'm having issues with this computer.
18:03:47 However, I'm here.
18:03:49 I wish to thank Janell skerritt and neighborhood group for inviting me as an elder of mixed heritage, draw for some words of encouragement to all of you and hopefully some wisdom to go along with that, to all the participants of this evening's event organizers
18:04:06 and all the participants are to be congratulated for taking this crucial step forward with detention willingness, and the desire to make our communities and our world and equally safe and better place for all of our citizens, regardless of race, color,
18:04:26 creed, social judicial or political standing accomplishing this task before you will be overwhelming and challenging, in many ways, and you may find that you'll be taken out of your comfort zone.
18:04:43 First, it is imperative for all of us to acknowledge that we are get residing here on Turtle Island. The traditional ancestral lands of our indigenous people, our brothers and sisters, and their gracious acceptance, has been greatly, and I'm necessarily
18:05:05 abused.
18:05:06 But multi generational ears of our society and the discrimination against our indigenous black and brown people has festered over the years since colonial times, and most certainly.
18:05:22 He feels will not be resolved in one session.
18:05:26 Yeah.
18:05:28 This is an excellent start towards understanding each other.
18:05:33 None of us living today are responsible for committing the errors and atrocities of cycle on yours.
18:05:41 That is not ours to own.
18:05:45 However, we are all to blame, and must be held accountable for perpetuating those errors and atrocities.
18:05:54 By condoning systemic racism and violence with our silence for bypassing the box with low proclamation of that isn't my problem.
18:06:06 Now must accept our world. Our Canada.
18:06:10 Turtle Island is in a state of payoff.
18:06:15 And the only way this will ever change is by working together to make positive changes happen right here on Turtle Island.
18:06:25 I encourage every participant to take a moment to remove all preconceived assumptions, open yourself to compassion, gentleness and caring for others.
18:06:40 But humanity back into the equation to replace fear mistrust and hate.
18:06:47 Do unto others as you would have them do on to you.
18:06:50 I encourage you to use common sense to think before you speak, and then intelligently, and B separately, say exactly what you mean display.
18:07:02 Be truthful and honest in making your statements for asking questions in a respectful and carried over from your heart and open your ears. Listen carefully.
18:07:15 Open your heart and open your ears. Listen carefully. In order to clearly receive the message from others, and the Creator.
18:07:20 In that way, you will better understand the issues from the other person's perspective.
18:07:28 Remember to guard yourself against arrogant.
18:07:31 Every person, regardless of their station in life, or education level has an opinion that may be completely different than your own but it's worth listening to.
18:07:42 from the highest offices in the land to the most humble homes from the poor children who have been physically and mentally abused, to the affluent, and well educated, have the privilege to establish ones who have the ability to articulate their wants
18:08:00 and needs, and share their life experiences without apology, or shame.
18:08:06 Each man, woman and child deserves equal respect and justice and need to be just judged by the content of their character, rather than by the color of their skin or their station in life.
18:08:32 they live in, or the size of their bank account. No matter what your station in life may be. From this moment forward. I encourage all of you to begin and end.
18:08:41 Each day with gratitude for your blessings.
18:08:46 You think great or small.
18:08:48 And all we seek to walk in, integrity, and respect closer to your family, friends and community.
18:08:58 On to the creator of all men,
18:09:02 humanity can move forward together in peace and justice for all.
18:09:13 In closing, I asked the Creator, the great creator. The Alpha and the Omega, and the ancestors. Bless this gathering to protect and give us wisdom and courage, as we move forward and listen to our heartbeat.
18:09:27 As we embark on yet another perilous journey to include security and diversity.
18:09:33 Thank you, and God bless you.
18:09:38 And thank you, Jamie.
18:09:40 Thank you to you, the attendees for joining us this evening. I am your host Greg Franklin. and over the course of the next hour.
18:09:50 We will unveil our new rethink policing tool kit that will make it easy for you to help spread this important message in communities across Toronto. You will also be the first to see our new video here from our panel of community experts and experienced
18:10:05 the artistry of a powerful local spoken word artist.
18:10:10 In response to the surge in awareness about the iniquities of over policing of black and indigenous people youth and amongst people living without homes, as well as the ineffective and harsh results of over policing gender Abuse and Mental mental health.
18:10:23 The Toronto neighborhood centers in collaboration with 21 other community partners, work together to produce a report in January 2021 entitled rethinking community safety.
18:10:34 The report explored ways that community based service providers could contribute practical solutions that have been proven effective and peacefully and effectively resolving situations that currently involved excessive use of force.
18:10:48 The report and tonight's event asked that we set aside our assumptions about how best to achieve peace through enforcement commands or threats of consequences, and instead explore how we can maximize community safety.
18:11:02 We hope that you'll agree by our story we hope that you'll agree that the city's approach can be improved by the subtle shift to prioritizing proven ways to ensure to achieve community safety.
18:11:15 And once again, we encourage you all to please ask your questions using the q amp a function so let's get into it.
18:11:22 So we begin by introducing you to the projects filmmaker.
18:11:26 Alan D'Agostino is a photo journalist and long term documentary photo photographer.
18:11:34 His work concentrates on intimacy and storytelling to serve as a catalyst for stories that belong to people who have not received the same opportunities as others.
18:11:46 He hopes his documentary work can shed a light on barriers for quality, a graduate of the International Center of photography. He's worked for al jazeera america news day, the Toronto Star narratively Newsweek the independent and inside Toronto.
18:12:02 Welcome L and then congratulations.
18:12:06 Thanks, Greg.
18:12:08 I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the neighborhood group. Chanel, and the advocacy committee for sharing their contacts, expertise, and providing support.
18:12:18 It's really rare that an organization affords you the actual time you need to tell a story.
18:12:26 It's such a privilege in some small way to help provide nuance to the conversation around the reallocation of police funding.
18:12:32 Most importantly, I want to thank Brittany and Andre for opening their homes and sharing their experiences.
18:12:39 Brittany.
18:12:41 Thank you for your honesty and introspection. Your kids are hilarious and confident.
18:12:47 Andre.
18:12:48 Thank you for your story in art, your animations provided a lot of texture meaning to the film.
18:12:58 And so, okay without further ado, I'd like to introduce our film about the over policing of youth and marginalized communities.
18:13:20 So me and my best friend, we're playing basketball at the school that we both went to this elementary school, and we had been there since, since kindergarten we've gone to that school so it was, it was our childhood staple.
18:13:32 Just to 16 year old kids playing ball as it started to get later and darker around 10pm, we just sat at the bench and just started talking about life.
18:13:45 Five cop cars came in from all different directions at the same time. So it was a very tactical very intimidating aggressive move in a way that it was very clear that we were being watched.
18:13:54 For for a while.
18:13:56 And it was dark at this point so all we saw were the headlights that were beaming right in our faces. They drove right up to us two meters away from us very intimidating, they got out of the car and right away they assume that we're guilty and they, they
18:14:09 say you have drugs in the bank, let's see what's in the bag just, they said as a statement, and then they asked to search our bags, even at the time, I knew that I legally didn't have to let them search my bag, but I felt so intimidated and scared, like
18:14:25 I felt terrified for my life so I let them. I let them search my bag.
18:14:30 They patted us down, and then they asked for ID, and they ran our names, through their system and one of the cars and they, they got us to wait until we were all checked out.
18:14:41 After that, they, they left in a way that it was like they were letting us off with a warning, as if we had done something wrong. I felt very, very humiliated.
18:14:51 Very powerless, very scared and very angry because up until this point that school Park lawn was, was a safe haven I literally grew up there. As the the the place of so many happy memories my childhood my innocence.
18:15:06 And then, and I was 16 at this point when this happened.
18:15:10 And then now having that that experience with the police. It completely changed the way I viewed myself. And the way I see myself being viewed by the world because it was clear that we were just sitting hanging out at the park, but the police sighs and
18:15:26 saw suspects they say they saw guilty people, because we were black, and because we were young, so just with that knowledge now I carry that with me and it's really heavy, because I know I can't just be free to move around.
18:15:39 I am seen as a threat, I am seen as a possible guilty suspect in the eyes of the law, which is terrifying. And now I no longer feel safe because of the fact that I know that yes not all cops are like this not all cops are racist not all cops abuse their
18:15:53 power, but that doesn't matter. The fact is, every time I'm in contact with cops are passed by them I'm rolling the dice I'm taking the chance that these might be the cops, that will abuse their power again, and the ones that will look at me like a criminal.
18:16:06 And I was driving to my girlfriend's house, so I was on the highway in going driving to St. Catherine's, and then a cop follows me for a few kilometers just right on my rear bumper, and I was going to speed limit the way he was driving behind me, it was
18:16:19 like they were trying to get me to speed up, and at this point I almost had a panic attack on the highway. It was terrifying every time I see those lights now, it's just it's just very scary, even though I knew I wasn't doing anything wrong.
18:16:31 I know that that doesn't matter anymore.
18:16:33 Yeah, I've. I felt really betrayed because even though I knew that communities like mine were targeted by police I but I knew this in theory I knew this the readings and through the news and through these things, but having it happened to me I felt I
18:16:48 I felt like batches robbed me of my sense of security in this world I can no longer look to the police or the law for protection, where other people, they they they see police and and all they think is safety, and they can rely on them to protect them
18:17:06 and be there for them.
18:17:08 And I, I no longer have that.
18:17:17 My mom grew up poor like very poor. And then she like worked her way to be successful. She wanted me to have the same privileges that her whiteness gave her growing up, I just don't think she realized that I have to navigate it differently than her.
18:17:36 Yeah, I just wish she, she saw that, yes I deserved and have the right to be treated like everyone else, but to also recognize that it's going to be different for me because of the color of my skin, and that's okay, like it's okay to be black, like, oh,
18:17:51 like when she says like oh I don't see color don't call yourself bad I got all those words growing up. That was like always so frustrating I'm like you don't really see me, because I am black, I am like, you know, my skin is different so why is that an
18:18:04 issue, why can't I say it.
18:18:06 I want to explain to you why some people see you as a threat but I can understand it.
18:18:11 I wish I could promise you that the world is an amazing place that you'll always be respected and safe.
18:18:18 I wish I could promise that I will always be there to protect you, no matter the time and place.
18:18:24 There will be one day I will have to sit you down and talk to you about one of the many things that scares me the most.
18:18:30 that one day, you could be stopped and question, based on the color of your skin, how you act, dress, or just being in the wrong place.
18:18:39 You'll be told to calm down and submit, when fight or flight rises up inside you.
18:18:46 When the matter of life or death creeps up behind you. Don't raise your voice. Stay calm. Make sure they can see where your hands are at all times. I wish I could promise that racism won't affect you, that you won't be profiled or misjudged.
18:19:01 There will come a time when you aren't seen as cute or innocent to strangers, and you're deemed a threat or a target, and that scares me.
18:19:09 You deserve to be treated with a quality, and I hope I can teach you well enough to know your rights, and how to navigate the realities of the world when you are older.
18:19:19 All I can promise you now is to try my best, and to take each day at a time to cherish these days, when I know you are safe and loved.
18:19:54 That was truly powerful and thought provoking.
18:20:01 And really, really well done.
18:20:04 These, these young people sharing their stories with such with such authenticity and power and especially tying that together with the spoken word.
18:20:14 Wonderful job and a great project really good job, Alan and yo and my respect to everybody who, who was who has seen and participating directly on screen with the film so great work and, and thank you for sharing that with us.
18:20:30 And at this point, is now my pleasure to shift our focus to the panel discussion. And I'll start by introducing my panel co moderator. The Lena Lena is a research assistant at the neighborhood group, and is working on several projects including giving
18:20:49 valuable support to the rethink policing initiative. She's a full time biochemistry student at McGill University and enjoys learning about the sciences, as well as social justice issues.
18:21:01 She's also interested in helping to improve policing and underserved communities remediation. And the integration of immigrants into communities. So, welcome to Lena.
18:21:13 Thank you Greg, I'm excited to be here. Right. great.
18:21:17 So now I'm delighted to introduce the members of our esteemed panel. We're honored that they can join us here for this important event.
18:21:24 First up is Nadine case more the coordinator of anti violence initiatives at the 519 with an educational background in advocacy and counseling, in the context of gender based violence, she seeks to build meaningful relationships interdependence in the
18:21:41 community.
18:21:43 Throughout the pandemic. She has been leading the peer led breaking the ice project at the 519. Welcome to the
18:21:52 for over 33 years, Nikica Sarah has worked in the mental health community, providing Crisis Counseling support and education.
18:22:01 Nikki is the coordinator of training and community and education at the Gerstein Crisis Center in Toronto. She has served on several community boards and committees as chair, including our Toronto Police Services LGBT q to liaison committee street health
18:22:23 and housing support services, welcome Nikki. Monica Samuel is the founder and executive director of black women in motion a Toronto based grassroots organization that empowers and supports the advancement of black survivors of gender based violence.
18:22:37 Over the last 10 years. Her work has focused on anti oppression, equity, mental health, sex positivity and consent celebrated in Canada is one of 2019 Top 100 black women to watch Monica's dedication to social justice has created educational and economic
18:22:54 opportunities for black women and queer youth across the city of Toronto. Welcome, Monica.
18:23:02 And finally, born and raised in Toronto. Levy Shafi is completing a bachelor's degree at York University, she's interested and exploring various political and socio economic topics concerning youth mobilization issues and challenges facing the African
18:23:19 and indigenous the Asperger's housing security and property ownership within the city.
18:23:26 A warm welcome to all of you, and thank you for being here.
18:23:32 Okay so sorry I'll start us off with our first question. It's good to see you all. So in a few words could you share a little bit about your work, the communities we serve.
18:23:43 And what alternatives to policing looks like for you and your clients and your work.
18:23:47 So needy and could you give us a point of view.
18:23:51 Sure. And, as stated I'm the coordinator of antibiotics initiatives at the 519. And this looks like case management with people experiencing different levels of violence so like interpersonal systemic institutional and internalized.
18:24:07 I also do quite a bit of systems navigation with folks and legal advocacy.
18:24:12 And as well I'm coordinating a harm reduction outreach program for people whose crystal in the downtown east.
18:24:18 So I primarily work with people who use drugs, and to us LGBT communities and also people that are on housed alternatives to policing religious looks like creating a new space to work through discomfort and come to a new understanding and not always choosing
18:24:35 the nuclear option of calling the police.
18:24:38 It's also about understanding lateral violence and community and how we engage with people who experience crisis, and how we approach people has a huge impact on the outcome.
18:24:48 And it's really healthy to work through discomfort and conflict and be heard around people that are willing to hold space, as well as just shifting the norms of the community and sort of reworking the concept of safety and who it's centered around, as
18:25:03 well as just building structures that allow for people to have consultation and space to make decisions and be with people that are trustworthy.
18:25:13 Fantastic. And, Nikki can we have your point of view.
18:25:17 Yeah so Kersey Center is a community based crisis center that's been around for over 30 years and we were probably the first in all of Canada where we provided a telephone line for over 50,000 people a year we also go out and visit people in the community,
18:25:36 we have a mobile crisis team. And we also have several houses where people can stay for three to five days we also have beds for the mental health and justice program.
18:25:48 And we have launched a new team right now which is called hh, and that is looking at more of the downtown core in working in partnership with community neighborhoods, businesses, so that people feel that they have an alternative to, instead of having
18:26:09 to call 911 they can call Burstein center, and we will go out and try to reach out to those individuals.
18:26:17 We're also launching in September, on 911 diversion so would mental health calls go into 911. They'll get diverted to a crisis worker, which we're really excited about that initiative because we know that 911 gets over 30,000 calls a year and mental health,
18:26:35 and those calls often can either be resolved over the phone or with a crisis team to go out and see them instead of having the police, go out so there's a lot of interesting dynamic things happening around mental health and addiction right now in terms
18:26:50 of really reducing that contact with with police.
18:26:56 I think that's so important, and Monica.
18:27:02 Hi, good evening everyone, llama Christian uiU she her pronouns.
18:27:07 Tight I'm calling from my home in Toronto, the place in the water where the tree stand tall, and I'm currently serving as executive director of black when emotion were black women and queer survivors are at the center of our work, and that's because the
18:27:20 the silencing and a ratio and community is so pervasive, as well as the many systemic failures to support survivors that currently exist that set up, you know, a framework that intentionally exclude them and leave them in a position to have to fend for
18:27:34 themselves so a lot of our services and supports are, you know, designed to provide pathways to, you know, job and income opportunities, emergency food really cover the costs for childcare and you know one on one, mental health support for survivors to
18:27:51 really support them holistically.
18:27:54 But in regards to policing, I think, you know, our stands as an organization is, you know, we understand that policing is a colonial force a colonial institution that is really draining the resources and community, none of the services and programming
18:28:10 we provide, and many folks you know that are here on the panel tonight, can be sustainable if we continue to give the police, you know, billion dollar annual budgets, you know, to create conditions for communities to thrive.
18:28:24 It's really important that read redirect and redistribute resources that will help build that critical infrastructure and support systems.
18:28:32 You know, for more, the most marginalized communities that we have here in the city so that's free culturally relevant counseling and therapy over policing free gender affirming care over policing job opportunities small business development over policing
18:28:46 affordable housing over policing.
18:28:49 You know green spaces drop in spaces over police a public transit, and also just transformative justice and accountability, you know for perpetuating the violence that oftentimes also includes the police.
18:29:03 So police, you know Free Communities police free world that means also freeing ourselves from you know this insidious culture of policing right we have the physical policing and the historical brutalization of black and indigenous and racialized body,
18:29:20 but then we see intellectual policing with the conversations around why critical race theory is important to complete a ratio of indigenous history and culture.
18:29:29 You know the digital suppression and policing that we also see that impacts black and indigenous activists and educators and things like that as well so to do a whole overhaul when it comes to police a beautifully beautifully said, and we me.
18:29:48 Hi, my name is Lena Shafi I'm currently a facilitator at heart start So our focus is liberation to the arts and Community Services I'm currently servicing going to heights do digital storytelling but previously I was a cheerleader at St Stephen's community
18:30:05 and there's an active community member within York University, and just the central Toronto area. So that's briefly what I'm great.
18:30:19 Great.
18:30:21 Thank you all so much and I'll jump in and ask the next question I just, just hoping and I'll start with you leave me and then maybe we can go to the dean after that just, can you expand on your own experience, or on the experience of your clients with,
18:30:36 with the police and with the criminal justice system.
18:30:42 So go ahead, let me
18:30:47 start off by like defining school to prison pipeline, and then relate that back to my public school experience. So, limit textbook definition is the disproportionate tendency of minors and young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds to become incarcerated
18:31:05 because of increasing our school, and when I scroll policies and educational inequality.
18:31:11 So, as a first generation Canadian a black woman. Coming from a family of seven that grew up and attended schools in Toronto, that were deemed vulnerable, it became gradually apparent regarding the parallels between public schools ideas of discipline
18:31:27 and how it was enforced, and how it models, a system that is punitive in nature, as opposed to it being solution oriented.
18:31:36 and how it was enforced, and how it models, a system that is punitive in nature, as opposed to it being solution oriented and these forms of discipline, which in all honesty, was a way of introducing and instilling forms of policing and fear into children
18:31:45 from a young age, disproportionately affecting black, and racialized students, and were exemplified in the differential treatment, compared to their counterparts.
18:31:54 This was and is illustrated through their hiring practices,
18:32:01 through their hiring practices. Teachers serving community of students without being culturally or historically responsive. Paul monitors, in my experience and my experience that I had habitual homeowners abusing their power and accusing black and racialized
18:32:21 students for petty things selectively placing security guards and police men in public high school, again, reinforcing the president, the presence of authority and saying that fear in an environment that is supposed to promote Community Safety conducive
18:32:36 to personal development, and ultimately for the higher education.
18:32:41 Additionally, this is also statistically exemplified in the racially charged and discriminatory protocols concerning suspensions and expulsions, this was identified in the findings in the carrying in the safe protocol report from 2017 to 2018.
18:32:58 We're in black students only account for 11 11% of the toast student population. Yeah, we're over represented and making up for 36%, for the total suspensions and expulsions.
18:33:10 Even when it comes down to learning in the classroom.
18:33:14 There are challenges and issues concerning funding and low income neighborhoods, different quality of education which is reflected in the quality and the infrastructure of equipment programming providing additional resources such as textbooks computers,
18:33:29 tools and offering specialized classes, and others.
18:33:33 And just to bring it back to my public school experience or reflecting today as an adult, I can see the ramifications within my community and my peers.
18:33:46 For example, there were there were students born and raised in Toronto.
18:33:51 They're born and raised in Toronto and put an ESL and locally developed classes. These decisions, ultimately, as small as they were back then, had long, long term effects in terms of higher pursue higher education and viable future employment.
18:34:08 It's a meticulous, and a port process that its ultimate adults vacation and demoralization.
18:34:17 Sorry.
18:34:19 It's the police.
18:34:21 The police they're comin.
18:34:25 Sorry about that. The irony of it all.
18:34:28 It's a meticulous occurrence. It's not smile worthy but it's a meticulous appoint process.
18:34:38 Identification demoralisation, and eventually the criminalization of young racialized students started that was a mouthful but I would finally like to share with all the potential students, my fellow peers I may be watching this at home.
18:34:52 I want to echo the message, the strength that we have. When be mobilized, whether it's small, or grand we are can be agents of change in our communities.
18:35:03 And wherever we go. We all have the right to self determination and to be successful in our own respective path so that's.
18:35:11 Sorry, that was a little much but that's what I had to say you know what, sometimes you just have to say what you have to say leave me and, you know, appreciate you know the depth and the passion of your perspective and, and thank you for your comments
18:35:23 and an Ico Nadine if she'd like to add a few things here.
18:35:29 Sure. Um, I guess one of the biggest things that is kind of obvious but it's definitely noticed is just the heightened visibility of people outside.
18:35:41 And so they're just inherently very accessible to police, and their lives are on display and all their actions are criminalized when a lot of what's being experienced is completely normal and is occurring inside all the time so for example like drug and
18:35:56 alcohol use fighting with your partner, and you display of intense emotion and so normal reactions to extraordinary circumstances are often framed as dangerous to others.
18:36:07 So, a lesser accountability of how people are treated by the police. Certainly occurs with the folks that I work with, just do job portraying stigma. And just a general lack of credibility given to community members based on gender, race, class, and just
18:36:23 And just a general lack of credibility given to community members based on gender, race, class, and just dehumanization of people that live outside.
18:36:26 And when people do experience mental health crises, and it's often reacted to with violence either by being formed, or being in interacting with the police otherwise.
18:36:37 And so there's very little space to consider the circumstances in which people are experiencing, and how that impacts their mental health
18:36:48 as well. Often, when people call the police, its people with more privilege so people like business owners or property owners, and there's this inherent power dynamic of somebody who's living outside being called on by somebody that has this power and
18:37:03 this sort of station in life that is given more credibility and also the fact that people are occupying the same physical locations but different social location so we see that in the parks.
18:37:22 that. And, and I think what it comes down to is that often you'll hear people saying that they're not safe.
18:37:28 But I think a lot of the times it's actually about discomfort, and there's a big difference between actually being unsafe and being uncomfortable.
18:37:36 And so a lot of the self reflection isn't happening around really asking yourself like am I actually unsafe or is this just difficult for me to be around or do I just not want to see this, and also people are just experiencing ongoing state violence gender
18:37:48 based violence poverty, being identified as a drug user.
18:38:02 And often people observe folks as being in crisis without consulting with the person like are you in crisis or is this just how it's going right now. And so when people do end up getting engaged with, as though they're in crisis and maybe getting formed
18:38:17 It actually prevents people from accessing supports when they identify that they are in crisis. So it sort of takes away their agency and autonomy on when they can access services and when they can work through it themselves.
18:38:25 I'm attending court is a huge challenge for people right now because everything's been online. So if you don't have access to the internet or a phone, you basically can't attend court.
18:38:35 And we have actually been running a program out of the Friday night chain where we allow people to attend court with us and have some additional support if needed.
18:38:44 And people are also reporting that they've sort of been institutionalized, and that they actually perceive being incarcerated as a safer option for them, which demonstrates the power of state violence that people are actually see that as a safer option,
18:39:05 the police are also being weaponized to coerce people into complying with community or organizational norms. For example, if somebody, you know, is yelling, or if somebody maybe hasn't showered for a while.
18:39:11 calls are being made to address this person to the police when in fact, again, this is not a police matter this is an individual that is having a different experience than you.
18:39:33 Also with the clearings and just a militaristic approach to homelessness, with it just puts people in impossible situations, they're forced to either comply or lose everything and be assaulted and all the state bonds is trickling down into lateral violence,
18:39:36 which is creating another opportunity for policing and a reiteration of the same issue intersection ality of people has a huge impact on how they're treated and perceived by police.
18:39:47 And people who use drugs or deal with complex mental health, it's not always acknowledged or understood, and it ends up creating a really really violent situation.
18:39:59 Also, people are often outside because it's not safe for them in the shelter system, specifically for members of the two as LGBT communities, which creates more opportunity for contact with the police and criminal justice system.
18:40:10 And there's very little resources to actually deal with these impacts like we haven't really seen a meaningful response to like how shelters are not safe for queer and trans people.
18:40:22 And, and we do see so many of these communities outside right now which is also equally not safe.
18:40:32 Wow. So a lot of issues there and thank you for bringing them to our attention and giving people a lot of things to think about and what you know I think we're going to continue to talk, our way through this and at this point though the Lena you I know
18:40:45 you've got another question for our panelists. Yeah, so there are so many barriers preventing this work from moving forward. What changes would you want to see to enable a broader impact for your work.
18:40:56 So based on the populations that you're supporting Monica Could you give me your opinion.
18:41:02 Yeah, absolutely.
18:41:04 You know what grassroots, and what grassroot groups and many not for profits and charities in the city are doing right now is addressing you know gaps and services not being met by the government.
18:41:16 And yet, you know, municipal provincial federal levels of government have no problem consistently making cuts to Social Services cuts the community development youth justice and safety programs.
18:41:27 But you know billion dollar police budgets.
18:41:30 So what happens is you know these organizations you know like Bachmann emotion and other groups you know we're throwing crumbs like here is some funding for, you know, a project based initiative.
18:41:41 Now go create something to address this issue and, you know, and gap that we have that we're not willing to fund long term with your limited resources and your limited staffing, instead of, you know, long term operational funding to support with infrastructure
18:41:53 to support with human resources and sustainability and being able to be agile enough to meet shifting needs and community, like when there's a global health pandemic so they're very short term fixes right projects that are wonderful, but then disappear
18:42:08 in 123 years due to funding being cut off, and that inconsistency i think is so harmful to community, and it just leads folks to doing what they need to do for to survive.
18:42:18 You know because politicians like to play with our lives and I've been one of those people as survivors that have had to do what I need to do to you know make ends meet, so to speak, but it also speaks to a larger issue when it comes to you know defending
18:42:31 and abolition and you know decriminalize decriminalizing drug use and sex work, and really needing to address like harmful policies and practices and institutions that perpetuate arm like black women emotion right now delivers four major programs for
18:42:47 black women and gender diverse survivors and the City of Toronto and Greater Toronto areas, we're serving upwards of 600 survivors, with a team of six people right so how do you, how do we respond to emerging needs and community, especially following
18:43:02 a global health pandemic when we don't have consistent funding and resources. How do we ensure you know black survivors aren't left behind, continue to be left behind when we have inconsistent resources.
18:43:14 You know I know that there was a study done by the foundation for black communities that really spoke to how you know black and indigenous led focus and serving organizations and groups, continue to be underfunded, And that's not by coincidence that's
18:43:28 absolutely by design.
18:43:30 So, you know, we kind of need to do some recon I'm speaking towards like you know levels of government and grant funding bodies in terms of how we are going to distribute funding equitably to community and meeting those that are the most marginalized.
18:43:45 And also, you know, thinking about our application process thinking about eligible eligibility criteria, and who is seen and the groups that are seen as legitimate in this particular space, I think.
18:43:57 Fantastic beautifully said, I think it's amazing what black women emotion is doing with the lack of funding.
18:44:05 Mickey, could you give me your point of view.
18:44:11 I, you know, what recently we had done several focus groups for the City of Toronto, talking to people who they themselves experienced crisis and sort of what they felt they needed to be able to manage their crisis and what kind of support they need into
18:44:29 place.
18:44:30 And, you know, one of the big biggest overall theme was is that they just wanted someone to be kind to them empathetic to them and to listen to them and they also were sick and tired of accessing lines that went to know where that one agency would pass
18:44:47 them on to another agency. And an interesting theme overall was many people said that it took them over two years to find the help that they need. And some of them actually didn't find it until they actually were apprehended went to jail.
18:45:03 And actually got supports in jail or went to mental or court diversion.
18:45:09 And it seems like a long harsh journey to be able to get the help you need that way and so and you know I really interesting what everybody here is saying and I love the fact that we're talking about the school system and that experience and I really
18:45:27 have a firm belief that that's that's our beginning of our journey in terms of, let's connect the resources in our school system so that people who are struggling who have experiences with mental health, or an addiction or whatever that experiences that
18:45:45 we provide them access to that support so when people need it, they can get it and that people know when they need their help, you know, we don't have to wait until they're, you know, living in a terrible situation, you know, not having any access to
18:46:03 proper hygiene or food and all that like that we can we can change that and excited about this forum and hearing what everybody's saying I feel kind of inspired about that that we're reflecting on that and I feel like that interconnection and working
18:46:19 together as a community, and sharing those resources are really going to help support each other and doing that.
18:46:27 So that's pretty much what I have to say I'm really, you know, a big component on that we, we need to feed our youth and our and our children, and give them that good support that they need and, you know, again the underlying theme is the people who are
18:46:46 struggling know when they need to get help and they often try really early on and sadly, when they don't get it early on that things often end badly for them.
18:47:01 Very important thank you for bringing that to light and leave me Could you give us your point of view.
18:47:06 So from a student perspective, what I would like to see is bridging the generational gap in terms of careers as first generation.
18:47:15 It was hard navigating the system that my parents are not familiar with my siblings are not familiar with. So I'm very much focused on students in bridging being a student and ultimately getting into the career respect to what we're discussing today which
18:47:29 is social work community work. So whether it be funding, whether it be mentorship programs which ultimately require monies funding so diversifying funding which the city, whether it be provincial federal.
18:47:42 That's where I stand right now.
18:47:48 Fantastic, thank you for providing a youth perspective.
18:47:52 Greg Do you want to ask the next question. Yeah definitely for sure thanks to lean out I've got a question for the dean.
18:47:59 There's obviously you know countless recent events where, you know, response from the city and the police demonstrate why it's so important that we make a collective effort to push.
18:48:09 Push the issues forward, however, is there something that you've experienced recently that it's been given you hope that there's a shift happening and how we look at policing.
18:48:21 If I'm totally honest, I'm not really.
18:48:27 It's been really difficult to see what's been happening at these clearings and to then also be so acutely aware that a lot of people actually see nothing wrong with what's happening and are actually in support of it like it's been very difficult for me
18:48:41 to hold those two realities.
18:48:45 And just the human ization and pathology of people really just like legitimizes the violent acts of the police and security forces in these situations.
18:48:55 And, and I think you know when it comes down to it like people are often labeled as having complex needs, but in fact their needs are very simple, it's just about access to affordable housing and the living wage.
18:49:06 and not everybody requires supportive housing or intensive case management, a lot of the bare minimums are just not accessible, and that's why we're seeing so many folks outside.
18:49:15 There's not enough of a focus on the systemic issues that have placed people in these situations, instead of critiquing like the morality or the willpower of the people that are outside.
18:49:26 And, but you know, the one thing that has sort of like given me hope is just that community members have engaged with us so deeply, to develop different structures or pathways to deal with grievances and community.
18:49:37 And that has been like the crux of all the work that we've done like without them coming to us and saying, we'd like for you to help us facilitate this we'd like for you to help us have this process.
18:49:47 Without that, so much like nothing can be done and so for those of us that have allowed us to provide a different space for like, or a space for a different experience, I should say.
18:49:57 And those are the folks that have demonstrated the greatest shift. And unfortunately, they're always the ones that are being asked to make that shift, like not the policy makers not the police it's always on the ground and community where people have
18:50:09 no choice but to find something different.
18:50:12 And so yeah that's kind of been my experience.
18:50:20 Great. So for our last question before we head into the q&a from the audience. I think it's very important to know, especially with this audience we have here.
18:50:30 What role allies can play in advancing your work and other peaceful and effective solutions for community safety.
18:50:38 Nikki Could you give us your opinion.
18:50:42 Uh, well I guess one of the things is that, that, as community members, and an agency's redefine how we define what crisis means, and not wait until people are suffering that we, we give people access to that information early on in that a crisis is not
18:51:04 is not an emergency a crisis is when someone's having a difficult time and we can have that conversation with people.
18:51:13 And just rethinking that.
18:51:17 I also feel that, on, on, on our alarm perhaps is that we need to also educate the public more in general about how, you know, what are the numbers what is 21141231 for and getting the number of getting the Gerstein center number so people have access
18:51:36 to those services, when they need it and they want it.
18:51:41 And, and I think just, we need to just keep talking about it we need to talk about, we need to keep talking about mental health and addictions, we need to talk about how you know there's so many things that play into our mental health and recognize it,
18:51:56 and for us all to get that help when we need it and take care of ourselves.
18:52:02 A pity, particularly anyone that's doing this work, and working really hard at it is that we all need to take care of our, our own mental health so that we can have that energy, continue to do this great work with everyone's talking about.
18:52:17 Fantastic.
18:52:19 And Monica.
18:52:22 The question and a half.
18:52:28 I was thinking a lot about a question that actually popped up around transformative justice and I think, going back to the whole piece around like abolition, you know, having crisis intervention teams and like alternative safety plans that work in collaboration
18:52:45 with community, but also like going back to like indigenous ways of knowing and being that are like rooted in healing that aren't rooted in restorative justice, and not rooted in retribution punishment policing and disposability because oftentimes we
18:53:03 think about, you know, policing and it's a, it's absolutely a pastoral state that can't be held accountable that does not hold. Other people are perpetuated the violence accountable.
18:53:19 but I think like how do we move towards a transformative and restorative place and the ways that we show up to community in the ways that we deliver you know programs and critical care and support has been something on my mind as well.
18:53:33 And I think for me it's also representation I think for agencies service providers at the table if you are providing critical support and care to community to a very particular segments of the community.
18:53:47 It's so important for you to have representation on the side of your staff, because then you have folks that are, you know, have the live experiences have, you know, the cultural understanding and contacts that are going to help to provide meaningful
18:54:01 support and care.
18:54:04 I think about training, you know, educating your staff, not just your frontline staff but something that I consistently see and cannot stand the education needs to comment you know the middle upper level management and the board as well.
18:54:18 Who are oftentimes so far removed from community and therefore so far removed from.
18:54:22 You know how we're actually going to properly tackle and dismantle, you know some of these systems and structures.
18:54:30 Okay. Lovely. So, now we can go through some of the q amp a questions from the audience.
18:54:39 Yeah, for sure we've, we've just got a few minutes here so we'll try to get to a couple of these questions and just, you know, encourage the, the panelists to be brief, so that we can get to as many of them as we as we can so the first one that we've
18:54:57 got here that I'm going to get to a pose to you is, you know, how would you define transformative justice, what would that include.
18:55:05 So who would like to jump in first.
18:55:10 I can continue on, I kind of spoke about it briefly in my last response but again it's moving away from, from punishment.
18:55:21 I think sometimes when things happen in community there's.
18:55:24 It's linked to prison right and if we're thinking about abolition like the prison industrial complex as a part of that of that piece, not just like policing and police officers necessarily so.
18:55:35 It's about education, it's about, you know, people being gets removed from community, but being educated being supported, a lot of the times when it comes to violence, there is unhealed trauma there, there's unhealed trauma as a result of living in these
18:55:50 very colonial and white supremacist systems and structures, right, we all have some level of internalized white supremacy some internalization of, you know patriarchy and sexism and all those things so there needs to be some type of space and grace for
18:56:06 that education for that healing before folks you know come back to community but it's not about disposability.
18:56:15 It's, it's, again it's rooted in care, it's but it's also routing accountability right when you think about, you know, police police saying, absolutely unable to hold themselves accountable.
18:56:26 Absolutely unable to hold themselves accountable. Absolutely unable to hold others accountable. But here community is involved from survivors, you know to healers and practitioners service providers where it's just, you know, a series of people here at
18:56:39 the table supporting ensuring that you know survivors, you know, have their versions of justice and accountability, as well as their there is this restorative, you know space for for the people or the persons that also perpetuate harm as well.
18:56:55 Definitely.
18:56:59 One of the others, like to jump in, I seen the dean, are you making a move for your mic there.
18:57:05 I was thinking that Yeah, um, my like everything that was said is like 100% 100%.
18:57:15 My understanding is that with transformative justice as well there's like a big focus on the circumstances that created the harm. So really looking at, like, systemic pieces looking at, basically the way that, like, a lot of people who do harm also experienced
18:57:37 harm. And there's, it's more complex than just saying this person is the one that did Harmon this person is the one that experienced the harm. So really being able to sort of like tease out and see the fullness of the picture that yeah the prison industrial
18:57:52 complex like totally creates this whole sort of cycle of people that and yeah there's no real like moment of humanity or pause to say like, what what's what's going on with you and like what what happened, so that we got here.
18:58:09 Whereas restorative justice is more about like sort of trying to mend the relationship between people on an interpersonal level so dealing with like an interpersonal conflict.
18:58:18 That's been my understanding and that's what I've been saying, I could be wrong but yeah.
18:58:24 Sounds really on point. thank you so much to do, I'm going to keep going with the question so I can try to squeeze in a couple more because we are starting to run a bit short on time here.
18:58:32 So I'm going to direct the question to you, Nikki Gerstein center sounds like the group to handle issues that are not appropriate for 911, practically, how do we get people to redirect to the natural impulse to call 9112911 dispatcher is need more training
18:58:50 on assessment and assessing than re channeling non-emergencies to two on one or 311 that can then bring in Gerstein center as appropriate.
18:59:01 So we're going to, so we, if we if they do have to revert to 211 that it's another phone call, but someone has to make so it's better if 911 transfers, right to Gerstein center so there's not like another another place to call because that's one of the
18:59:21 big issues people said I'm just so tired of having to call one place and then another place I just want to call someplace and get the help that I need.
18:59:30 And I guess you know that's a big question is that what we need to know is that if we have over 30,000 people calling 911 for mental health crisis. It means that those 30,000 people didn't know where to get help, and they, they, They were in a bad place
18:59:48 and.
18:59:50 And what we need to do is we need to change that.
18:59:54 So it's people calling because you know they have a child that they try to get help for and they couldn't get help for and they're in the basement, and they can't get, they don't know what to do and so they just call 911 to try to get help and get the
19:00:09 system activated and sometimes our system is set up that way, is it like for instance if you broke your arm, you're better off going to an emergency than then going to an X ray clinic, waiting three days for your doctor to get it because if you go to
19:00:23 emergency you'll get the help that you need right away. And so that that's a systemic issue.
19:00:29 We're hoping by doing this diversion that it's not even training for the 911 operators it's just because those people are calling and and what, but we do need to get that information out that, you know, if you want to get Gerstein center, what our number
19:00:48 is and also, you know, 211 is really good at what they get a crisis call they'll do a transfer right over to us as well so that's another option and 311 will do the same thing as well.
19:01:01 But it's it's a whole public campaign that we need to do to let people know that if you're having a difficult time. You can call the nursing center and it's interesting since we've been talking about crisis services in the city of Toronto and the city's
19:01:17 been doing this a lot, they keep saying they're creating a new crisis service but we've had one for over 30 years. And we just need to let people know that were around, it's there, and they don't need to call the police to do wellness checks like why
19:01:32 are the police, doing wellness checks.
19:01:36 There's no reason for police to do wellness checks they shouldn't be doing it, they should be calling us, and we should be doing it. So there's all these little things within the system and the other thing is is that often the police need to know about
19:01:50 what community resources are and that's an education campaign that I've been doing for decades is to get the police if they go on and a call to give them to give our number out and try to create access that way sometimes and that's another diversion route.
19:02:06 So, good question and we really got to get the word out. And when people are feeling so desperate, and they feel alone that they don't feel that that's the only thing that they have is 911.
19:02:21 Awesome. Thank you, Nikki. I think we have one more time, a time for one more question right to Lena. Yeah, so we me. We have a question.
19:02:31 You raise really essential issues about criminalization of racialized use you this morning to be done within schools to defuse this misdirection. Not that schools and teachers and staff don't already have full place during the pandemic.
19:02:47 Do you know any organizations have programs that are already doing this work.
19:02:57 Same Stevens from high school to currently I'm even familiar with Monaco's, I know sneak was so I'm familiar with your program as well. So those who I know are very resourceful result of programs.
19:03:13 Also, in terms of for any high school students. I just want to urge students in terms of suspensions or expulsion that you can appeal suspension or expulsion, you could go to your trusty your representative and your ward.
19:03:27 There's also a board of discipline committee so there are multiple areas that you can go on and I urge is self advocacy at the end of the day and it is strongly was it is taxable.
19:03:38 But there is resources there are places that you can go to if you do feel that.
19:03:45 Yeah, and especially if you do feel that you're wrong and in that regard, so.
19:03:52 Okay, thank you, me, it's great. Thank you. Thank you. Leave me. Thank you, Dean Thank you, Monica. Thank you, Nikki.
19:04:02 What a wonderful session.
19:04:04 You know I'm sure everybody who was here was able to learn a little something. And I just want to express a you know a warm thank you to all of you for being here with us this evening and we're deeply grateful for your for your presence in our event here
19:04:19 this evening.
19:04:23 Right.
19:04:24 And I can, I can also refer to that.
19:04:30 The, the folks who who asked questions that we weren't that we weren't able to get to, you know, we will we will be gathering that and we're going to make some more reference to the fact that that those can help to shape the FAQs, for the, for the website
19:04:46 tool kit and what we'll talk more about that in a moment.
19:04:50 So for now just thanks again to everybody on the panel and we'll go to the next person up in our program. And that is Shawn mater, the coordinator of convene Toronto, who's also an organizer of the rethinking community safety initiative for Toronto neighborhood
19:05:05 centers. He's a former executive director of the Social Planning county council in Toronto, and a partner at public interest, a social enterprise working on progressive causes.
19:05:17 He has managed public policy reform initiatives and mobilization campaigns for not for profits, the public sector and the labor movement.
19:05:26 Thanks for joining us, Sean.
19:05:28 Thanks Greg and thanks to everybody who's participating today and thanks for those great panelists talking about the opportunities and the challenges that we're facing right now.
19:05:40 And I noticed in part of the q amp a people were saying, you know, what can I do, how do I do something to make sure that that we move forward on these issues.
19:05:48 And there are some really great opportunities to do that city councils in the process right now of making decisions about policing, with several opportunities to intervene over the next few months.
19:06:00 In November, council will be able to consider some new opportunities to develop new programs to support vulnerable people instead of policing them in December councils going to be developing concrete plans to implement the broader ideas that are in the
19:06:12 community safety and well being plan and talk about how concretely to shift systems that focus on care, rather than on enforcement.
19:06:27 January and February Council is going to develop a 2022 budget, which will decide how we invest in community safety, or whether we continue to simply spend on enforcement at each of these stages that accounts or make key decisions about whether to expand
19:06:35 non police responses and fun third broke, or stay with what's not working.
19:06:40 So, in this unique and important window of time, it's really critical that people do two things.
19:06:46 One is talk to your counselor. Tell them what you think about the need to make changes that insurance support for vulnerable people rather than enforcement against them.
19:06:55 And the second is talk to your neighbors or if you're a service provider, talk to your community.
19:07:00 There are tools and the online toolbox. The channel is going to go through shortly. To help you be able to do that effectively. there are videos in fact sheets that you can share their ideas about how to connect their discussion documents that can guide
19:07:13 a local meeting.
19:07:14 And remember that in every city that's made progress on this issue. The ideas for solutions came from the community from the bottom up, not from the top down.
19:07:23 So your community is going to decide if we move ahead, or stay where we are and talk to your counselor is actually really easy. If you don't know where to find them or even who they are, you can just call 311 or go to toronto.ca and click on the members
19:07:37 of council link right there on the front page, and both ways.
19:07:41 You can be connected directly to your counselors office, if all you have is your home address, And it's their job to hear from you.
19:07:49 The community is where the counselors really need to respond I worked in a counselor's office and I know constituent calls are always a priority because that's where votes come from.
19:07:59 So, all your counselor, talk to your friends and neighbors and talk to your community, and get them to call their counselor, and let's get this ball rolling.
19:08:07 This fall, to get some real chain.
19:08:12 Yeah. And thank you, Sean. I appreciate your words and I just want to say that you know I, you know, I'm excited because we've reached the big reveal of one of the evenings was important action items and and that's the tool kit so let me introduce you
19:08:26 to our guide for that. Shannon McCauley is a proud member of the neighborhood groups board of directors and its affiliated advocacy Committee, which helped to coordinate this important event.
19:08:38 Shannon is a non for profit manager based in Toronto, and currently is the Senior Manager of partnership development with Community Food centers Canada.
19:08:49 Previously, she worked for 10 years and supportive housing in downtown Toronto.
19:08:53 Thanks for joining us this evening Shannon.
19:08:56 Thank you Greg.
19:08:58 For some context, I want to share a little bit about the advocacy committee which Greg referred to.
19:09:03 This consists of a group of board members can you members and neighborhood group stuff.
19:09:10 Who collectively meet to discuss advocacy issues related to the neighborhood groups mission and values.
19:09:16 It's a group where we intentionally organize to use our collective power and resources to bring more attention to an injustice and fight for change. And this year we knew we wanted this energy to be put towards alternatives to policing, as we've heard
19:09:27 from the panel discussion, there has been an incredible amount of work within our city a month advocates grassroots organizations and others who have been pushing for a very long time to reform how we look at Community Safety is involved sharing the realities
19:09:40 of those who encountered racism and discrimination, when interacting with police interactions which are unnecessarily violent, and in some cases deadly.
19:09:49 and I want to express my gratitude to those who have shared those with us today. And then the film earlier.
19:09:55 So what I'd like to share now is a tool kit that was created for this event. And it's intended for us to move on Shawn Shawn's call to action. So it should be linked in the chat and that's a website, which provides tools that are available to us and share
19:10:08 with in your networks and the intention of this toolkit is provide capacity and resources to be used references and also to help us create a collective voice on the website you'll find including what Shawn had mentioned a discussion guide and fact sheets,
19:10:21 but also a link to the video we just watched, which I have to say was such a powerful and compelling film which demonstrates the real challenges and fair that exists within the current approach to policing in Toronto.
19:10:31 And it provides a look at the undeniable injustices, which will continue to exist without investment from our city and those in power to redirect energy and funding to effective and prevention dimensions.
19:10:41 There are two other films that Allen's can working on and they will be released over the summer and launch later in the fall, so please keep an eye out.
19:10:48 As we share those on our social media and on the website.
19:10:51 You'll also find a very useful PowerPoint for reference includes information that we can use in full or in part for your own advocacy work within your networks and you'll also find social media posts templates hashtags video clips may encourage you to
19:11:04 use those wherever you can.
19:11:06 There's other marketing tools speaking points, a template letter that you can use to write to your counselor, and we've left room for you to use your own logos on these templates, but we've also included a downloadable rethinking police logo, which has
19:11:19 been used for this event, and you can use that as well on any materials related to this work. And lastly we have linked the rethinking Community Safety report that Greg referred to, at the top of this session, which has shaped a lot of the resources that
19:11:32 you will find in this toolkit. So we invite you to please visit the website and share where you can, the team here we'll be adding appropriate resources and updating the toolkit as more information becomes available.
19:11:42 We want to be agile as we adapt to the headlines that are evolving.
19:11:47 And we want to be agile as we adapt to the headlines that are evolving. As we speak, and if you have further questions we invite you to reach out to Janell Skerritt, our VP of vibrant communities and poverty reduction at the neighborhood group her contact information should be in the chat but also be on the
19:11:57 information should be in the chat but will also be on the website, and you can reach out to learn more about these resources. We're also going to we're really appreciative of the questions that were asked in the q amp a especially the ones that we, we
19:12:07 couldn't get to we want to make sure that we take a look at those and it can help shape our q amp a resources and our frequently asked questions resources.
19:12:15 So thank you very much. I'm going to pass it back to Greg.
19:12:18 Thanks Shannon that was great and very much appreciate you being able to walk us through that tool kit I mean come on, you've got videos, you've got FAQs you've got sample letter templates, you've got the research report you've got this evergreen living
19:12:33 continuously evolving resource and it's just going to be a powerful thing for all of you to be able to put to use so that we can make some real moves and some real change when it comes to how we think about how we conceptualize, and the sort of future
19:12:49 that we visualize for policing in this city. So that's, that's amazing and powerful, take note of course, that, you know, Chanel's information has now been shared in the chat.
19:13:01 You're also going to if you want to take a look through the through the tool kit, I recommend that you either copy that link down right away or even better.
19:13:09 Click on it so it opens in your browser, and then put the tools to good use. All right.
19:13:15 And so at this point now I'll introduce you to our next speaker.
19:13:19 Our next speaker for this evening is Ingrid Palmer, and she is the director of networks and relationships a Toronto neighborhood centers. She's an award winning inspirational speaker, and the founder and CEO of focus on ability or motivational campaign
19:13:34 designed to inspire triumph over adversity. As a partially sighted woman of color and a former crown Ward herself, Ingrid works with organizations to build stronger, and supportive communities thanks for joining us this evening Ingrid.
19:13:49 Thank you for having me.
19:13:52 The impetus behind Toronto neighborhood centers rethinking community safety, a way forward for Toronto, was the undeniable and deepening pervasive stomach in justices propagated against individuals in the communities, our member agencies serve across
19:14:12 the city. It was necessary to re contextualize the experiences of our disproportionately impacted community members, outside of the dominant notions of safety, which are deeply anchored to an over reliance on police and enforcement.
19:14:31 The intent of the report that was launched earlier this year was to present to City Council, a blueprint for viable alternatives to policing, and to broadly provoke a genuine consideration of community safety models that uniquely reflect the needs of
19:14:51 our diverse neighborhoods.
19:14:54 Imagine a system of community care that upholds the intrinsic value and dignity of everyone, without regard to race status ability or any other non relevant factor.
19:15:09 Can you picture a Toronto where every individual realizes they're right of belonging and place in such a way that allows them to pursue the extent of their potential without hindrance.
19:15:25 That is drastically different than what we have now as interested parties, we have both the potential, and the opportunity to participate in revolutionising approaches to community care, well being in service provision.
19:15:45 I would reiterate our collective responsibility to the vulnerable sectors in our society.
19:15:51 It is imperative that we not only voice, our support of the toolkit that was unveiled tonight, but also that we make use of it.
19:16:02 In the upcoming weeks, I encourage you to hold these important and necessary conversations in all your spaces and Toronto neighborhood centers is committed to support you in your efforts.
19:16:16 In fact, we have been endeavoring to build confidence and hosting discussions around police reform and community safety, with a series of workshops, tomato possible strategies.
19:16:30 In fact, the next one is tomorrow morning at 10am, and they welcome you all to join and participate, hopefully, the link is in the chat at the moment.
19:16:41 And I just want to encourage you to remember that you are the key to change. You don't have to have the answers, but you do have to be willing to throw some skin in the game, and push, alongside others.
19:16:54 Remember that we thrive better when we thrive together, and we really are each other's keeper. Thank you.
19:17:09 Thank you so much and grid.
19:17:12 That was so well said. And we really appreciate you joining us today, and also for all of you who are advocating and pushing for justice and challenging us, as you say thrive together that there was really well done.
19:17:23 I want to acknowledge the experiences of those in this space who have been directly impacted by our cities current approach to policing.
19:17:29 We've been fighting this fight for years, and also those who may be just joining in now, and I hope that we can leave today with some collective hope and confidence that we can push for radical progress and transformation towards safe and thriving communities
19:17:40 for all.
19:17:41 On behalf of the advocacy committee in the neighborhood group, I'd like to very much share our appreciation for all those who contributed to the work leading up to this event, and the creation of this toolkit.
19:17:50 There was a tremendous amount of work that went on behind the scenes to get to today.
19:17:55 We started off a meeting today with a song called metros number one problem by the band truce and right and we thank them for giving us permission to use their song and launching us into this very important conversation today.
19:18:05 So thank you.
19:18:07 Elder Jamie Cooper Wilson, thank you so much for your beautiful blessing and routing our work today with a reminder that most of us are our guests on this land Turtle Island, and to challenge us to combat fear and hate and as you say welcome dignity together
19:18:18 towards peace and justice for all.
19:18:20 Thank you to the filmmaker, Alan August, you know, as well as those who share their very intimate stories and artwork to create this powerful film, as well as the two others that will be released soon to our panelists I think he was well and eating case
19:18:32 more Nikica Sarah's Monica Samuel, and leave me Shafi, thank you for answering our questions and sharing your expertise with us all.
19:18:40 Sean Maher, we appreciate and are moved by your call to action.
19:18:43 And Greg Franklin, we appreciate you for taking the time to work with us and guiding us through these important conversations today.
19:18:51 Selena from, as well, not only for your contributions contributions to the panel discussion, but also for a lot of work that you did behind the scenes.
19:18:58 Bill Sinclair, who is the CEO and president of the neighborhood group. We want to thank you for your guidance and leadership and support as we move through this project, but especially to Janell scare it, the Vice President of vibrant communities and
19:19:09 poverty reduction at the neighborhood group, your tremendous amount of work behind the scenes coordinated spent has been extremely pivotal pivotal, and you were so appreciated.
19:19:18 We will soon be privileged to hear Jonathan RFE nice performance and a few moments, and I'd like to share gratitude for leading us away from this meeting inspired and prepared to have the tough and important conversations needed to support this word.
19:19:29 Thank you.
19:19:32 Great. And thank you very much Shannon. And of course, thanks to everyone who appeared or to help to make this event possible and, you know, Shannon just mentioned before we wrap up the evening we have one more person who's going to share their words
19:19:46 with you. And I am personally super excited about this because you know part of my own personal journey is you know through performance of spoken word and so to have some spoken word come in and wrap this practice thing up.
19:19:59 It says just it's just the best thing so you know you all are you are about to get some, some real value out of this, and it's remarkable that we use the word value because of course we're going to be talking about a young man who goes by Johnny gems.
19:20:12 So, Jonathan edifying is a spoken word artist known to no borders, whilst his pen gets sharper as he matures he keeps his wording in pockets of relating to his audience, creating a dynamic for both himself, and the listener to feel that they're heard
19:20:29 live in his life as a balancing act gems is currently in his commerce studies preparing himself for a career of passionate uncertainty. So everybody just, you know, just get yourself mentally set because Johnny gems is about to kick it off for us right
19:20:45 now so go ahead, my friend Ben great before I get started, I just want to say like this event was like, I'm glad to be a part of this event actually attend.
19:20:57 This is a lot of like valuable information was given especially me being a black man in Canada. A lot of light and important information was said so glad to be a part of this.
19:21:06 This is a spoken word piece I made for this event.
19:21:10 It's called what's new and how get started.
19:21:33 Ain't nothing new on the news, no point watching it is the same thing that view new names old story caught in different places, hard pill to swallow because it was the same with the faces.
19:21:28 The boys in black and blue be blacks till the blue. And that's it for lucky messing funeral blues. We asked for a change what's changing in this era 2021 cops get caught off guard on camera.
19:21:41 And depending on the angle that the picture is taken cops offered a slap on the wrist for the situation they placed in.
19:21:47 So why do you think we protest, we can't afford progress to be complacent. You want to push the envelope on our forums and form better relations, because 911 and pick sides and helps them.
19:21:58 I shouldn't be afraid.
19:22:00 When I've done that the wrong and BLM should be a threat our company trend. So instead of pretending of social acting. Let's call to action.
19:22:09 The police narrative was switch up as soon as they fix up a few bad apples is too many for the job description.
19:22:27 A bad son mean I can do bad no consequences on my back, and siren shimmy violence is arriving.
19:22:23 So let's do better, so we can be better.
19:22:26 Let's give the youth to choose where they feel safer.
19:22:28 What times to feel fresher than a new taper and racism being issue the past, not one of later.
19:22:34 So as the president presents a presence of hope.
19:22:38 The future could be more about freedom with less to cope to a point where love glows and hatred slows, then we could rethink what's new about a potential growth.
19:22:47 Thank you for listening.