​Toronto’s First Black Police Chief Is Not the Reformist Cop Activists Wanted

It took a few words from his ten-year-old son for the magnitude of the moment to dawn on Mark Saunders, Toronto's next police chief.

"Dad, that's history," the boy said to the veteran cop, the first black man to assume the helm of the largest municipal police force in the country. "That's something they can never take away from you."

The appointment of the so-called "cop's cop," who rose the ranks by leading tough investigative units in the homicide squad and guns and gangs unit, comes at a point of strained relations with members of the city's black community, who feel targeted by a practice known as "carding."

Asked explicitly if he will eliminate carding, Deputy Chief Saunders said he is open to whatever is best for the city, adding that while community safety is paramount, he wants minimize the "collateral damage."

Throughout Monday's press conference, the chief designate actively sought to quell expectations in one of the most multicultural cities in the world.

"Being black is fantastic [but] it doesn't give me super powers," Saunders, 52, said. "If you're expecting that all of a sudden the earths will open up and miracles will happen, that's not going to happen. What will happen is that there will be lots of open dialogue, there will be a lot of open talking, more so than ever before."

Saunders succeeds Chief Bill Blair, a polarizing force whose last day is on Friday. He beat out Deputy Chief Peter Sloly, who is also Jamaican Canadian, and had been touted as far back as 2009 as a chief-in-waiting. Sloly had the backing of prominent members of the black community and was seen as the most reform-minded candidate.

Saunders is said to have the respect of the rank and file, and was, unofficially, the union favourite. "I've got a lot of respect for Mark as a police officer and as a leader and think it was a good choice," Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, told VICE. "The right choice."

The appointment by the police services board follows an exhaustive international search that culminated with a unanimous decision, said Toronto Mayor John Tory.

Still, the issue of carding will be a fraught political minefield for the new chief, who said he is committed to "bias free" policing. Civil liberties activists and black organizations have ridiculed "carding"—a practice in which officers collect and document interactions with people who are neither under arrest nor suspected of any crime—with one group going so far as to call it "state sanctioned terrorism against the black community."

Data obtained by theToronto Star found black men are carded disproportionately. A new policy limits carding to instances where there is a public safety purpose, although critics say the definition is too broad.

None of the leading local police chief contenders came out publicly against carding, which senior officers see a crucial investigative tool. McCormack welcomed "another lens" that Saunders will bring to the matter, noting he "understands the investigative need for intelligence gathering and understands the community concerns."

Anthony Morgan, a policy and research lawyer with the African Canadian Legal Clinic, told VICE his organization is pleased that the police board determined that "merit can have a black face" although Saunders "wasn't the most progressive choice, in our estimation."

But Cutty Duncan, a community activist who has pushed hard to ban carding, is optimistic the new chief is open to dialogue.

He, too, applauded the selection of a black chief. "Does it change what type of policing we're going to get? It's still going to be a fight to achieve what we want," he said.