CLA Submissions on The Use of Lethal Force by Toronto Police Service
On July 27th, 2013, Sammy Yatim was shot and killed by James Forcillo, a Toronto police officer following an altercation on a TTC street car. In the wake of this tragedy, Chief Bill Blair engaged former Supreme Court Justice, Frank Iacobucci to conduct an independent review of the use of lethal force by the Toronto Police Service.
The Criminal Lawyers Association was among a select group of organizations invited to make submissions to Justice Iacobucci on the following topics:
- TPS policies, procedures and practices
- TPS training, and training at the Ontario Police College
- Equipment used by TPS
- Psychological assessments and other evaluation of TPS police officers and officer candidates
- Supervision and oversight
- The role of the Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams (MCIT) currently employed by the TPS
- The role of the TPS Emergency Task Force
- Best practices and precedents from major police forces internationally (in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and other jurisdictions)
- Available studies, data and research
The CLA’s submissions were the product of countless hours of effort on the part of Anita Szigeti, Breese Davies, Sean Robichaud, Simon Borys and many others.
Jusitce Iacobucci’s final report can be found here which includes 84 recommendations which spell out changes in training and equipping of police to better deal with people in crisis.
The Criminal Lawyers Association submissions to the Independent Review can be found below.