Doug Ford interrupted at Somali event over support for controversial police unit
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford was booed and interrupted this weekend when he told members of Toronto's Somali community that he supports resurrecting a controversial police unit disbanded in 2017.
The Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy, known as TAVIS, was set up in 2006 to curb violence in high crime areas determined by police. Its formation came in the wake of the summer of 2005, the so-called 'summer of the gun' in the city.
TAVIS was disbanded in January 2017, according to police, two years after the province cut the unit's annual funding nearly in half.
Critics of the unit's tenure say TAVIS increased tensions between police and residents of targeted neighbourhoods, many of them people of colour, because officers often used carding as a policing tool. The much-maligned practice is now prohibited in many circumstances under provincial law.
At a meeting dedicated to ending violence in Etobicoke on Saturday, Ford said he supports the creation of a similar program.
"I'm in favour, 100 per cent, as a premier, to get involved with the TAVIS program as well. The TAVIS program was good, but then it was cut," Ford said on Saturday at the event organized by the Somali Canadian Forum.
Doug Ford interrupted at Somali event over support for controversial police unit | CBC News
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford was booed and interrupted this weekend when he told members of Toronto's Somali community that he supports resurrecting a controversial police unit disbanded in 2017.
The Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy, known as TAVIS, was set up in 2006 to curb violence in high crime areas determined by police. Its formation came in the wake of the summer of 2005, the so-called 'summer of the gun' in the city.
TAVIS was disbanded in January 2017, according to police, two years after the province cut the unit's annual funding nearly in half.
Critics of the unit's tenure say TAVIS increased tensions between police and residents of targeted neighbourhoods, many of them people of colour, because officers often used carding as a policing tool. The much-maligned practice is now prohibited in many circumstances under provincial law.
At a meeting dedicated to ending violence in Etobicoke on Saturday, Ford said he supports the creation of a similar program.
"I'm in favour, 100 per cent, as a premier, to get involved with the TAVIS program as well. The TAVIS program was good, but then it was cut," Ford said on Saturday at the event organized by the Somali Canadian Forum.
Doug Ford interrupted at Somali event over support for controversial police unit | CBC News
