Ford Empowers Cops

Ford’s decision to enhance policing instead of addressing the pandemic is unethical and dangerous.  

Police are not the solution to a worsening public health crisis and do absolutely nothing to address COVID-19 or create safety in schools, workplaces, and communities. Doug Ford and the Ontario PC Party’s newest measure to “step up” is a colossal leap backwards that is ideologically and politically rooted in furthering a law and order agenda, and aligning with private profit and corporate interests over medical expertise and public needs. 
An expansion of police powers does not curb the spread of COVID-19. It serves only to further empower the violent and systemic racism of policing across Ontario. Data shows that so-called "random” stops are never random in an inherently racist, colonial, homophobic, and transphobic society. This newest scheme mandates the ongoing profiling and harassment of Black, Indigenous, racialized and LGBTQ2S folks, sex workers, and unhoused people, and reinforces the criminalization of poor and working-class communities. While individual police forces have announced that they will not enforce random stops, nothing in these forces’ history indicates that we can trust their discretion.

By putting police powers above public health, Ford is endangering the safety of neighbours and community members and prolonging the devastation of this pandemic. This government is also making it clear that ableism, classism, and white supremacy are guiding the provincial government’s decisions. They must pivot NOW to implement an equitable vaccine strategy and the policies and supports needed to suppress the virus. 

We will never forget the actions of this government and how it has failed to follow medical experts, and allowed this dire situation to evolve. The sickness and death of predominantly Black, Indigenous, and racialized residents are due to the government's consistent failures. 

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Toronto is outraged by these draconian measures. We will continue to speak out. We will mobilize, organize, and fight back in coalition to stop the ongoing violence of the police state.