The province has put together a team to conduct an independent review of the Special Investigations Unit, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, and the Ontario Civilian Police Commission to: make recommendations on how to enhance transparency and accountability of the police oversight bodies while preserving fundamental rights ensure the police oversight bodies […]
New approaches to child welfare are urgently needed to address the over-representation of certain groups among children in child welfare care. These approaches must be informed by good research and take full account of cultural and linguistic needs and experiences of historical and contemporary institutional racism which place children and their families at higher risk […]
For the past year, One Vision One Voice has been consulting with the African Canadian community and Children’s Aid Societies across the province to develop a Practice Framework to support better outcomes for African Canadians who are involved with the child welfare system. One Vision One Voice is a community-led project facilitated by the Ontario […]
Even before Kimberly Roach started co-leading Legal Aid Ontario’s (LAO) Racialized Communities Strategy, she saw firsthand the need for a strategy to address the needs of racialized communities.
Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) made 27 recommendations for the development of the Strategy for a Safer Ontario, a new blueprint for policing. LAO’s submission to the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services is based on its own understanding of the legal needs of vulnerable client groups. The submission focuses on: education and training programs […]
In 2014, Ayaan Farah lost her job because the RCMP alleged she had a connection to the Dixon Crew, an Etobicoke street gang. Transport Canada revoked her security clearance at her job of eight years at Pearson International Airport because of these allegations—and, as a result, lost her job. On August 15, 2016, a Federal […]
The following post was originally published on rabble.ca on July 25, 2016 by Vince Wong, a staff lawyer with the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic. Two weeks ago, Regent Park bore witness to possibly the most candid public discussion on racism with high level decision-makers in Ontario’s history.
In 2014, Jermaine Carby, a 33-year-old Black Canadian, was a passenger in a car that was pulled over by police during a routine traffic stop in Brampton. He was shot and killed after police said he refused to drop a knife he was holding. In the inquest that followed in 2016, a coroner’s jury determined […]
The following letter to the editor appeared in slightly shorter form in the Toronto Star on June 29. Re: CAS study reveals stark racial disparities for blacks, aboriginals Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) applauds the Toronto Star for calling attention to the overrepresentation of children who are Aboriginal or Black in the child protection system. While […]
The accused: “I am a young man who has made poor choices for himself but I am making changes to better myself. I do not want to be that 30 year old Black man who is a lost cause as I have potential to do something with my life.” The Court: “He thereby raises not […]