Canada’s police chiefs are calling on all levels of government to provide more resources, training and “moral” support to help policing services respond to a growing number of protests across the country.
The Canadian Association of Police Chiefs said at the conclusion of its annual summit in Halifax on Tuesday that the increased protest activity is leading to an “unsustainable demand” on police resources.
Thomas Carrique, the Ontario Provincial Police commissioner who also serves as the national association’s president, said chiefs are increasingly concerned about having to pull officers away from their regular duties to control demonstrations instead. Those officers are also logging increased overtime, the chiefs heard, leading to fears of burnout.
“National issues and global conflicts have led to an increase in the frequency, duration, complexity, risks and threats of these public assemblies in cities across our country,” Carrique told reporters.
“Protests and civil disruptions to the extent we are seeing in Canadian society today is really unprecedented.”
Carrique said Toronto’s police chief told association members during the conference that his force has responded to more than 1,000 protests since the start of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict last October.
The additional resources required to control the demonstrations have cost Toronto police “tens of millions of dollars that they would have had no opportunity to budget for,” Carrique said.
Over the past two years, protests and demonstrations have also been held throughout Canada against the rising cost of living and global conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, as well as in support of the “Freedom Convoy” movement.
Across the country, Carrique added, protests have become increasingly violent, with some participants directing threats and aggression toward police officers. Carrique said the aggression is often the result of “activists, splinter groups or simply thugs” who want to cause a disruption by co-opting the original intent of a lawful demonstration.
Statistics Canada’s latest police-reported crime data shows assaults against a peace officer rose 6.5 per cent last year from 2022. Between 2019 and 2022, the number rose just 4.5 per cent.
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The association on Tuesday released a resolution first adopted in July that draws attention to the issue. It asserts that immigration may be playing a role by bringing people to Canada from countries where “the use of violence is an accepted vehicle for social change.”
The resolution goes on to claim that “thousands of people who may have an orientation towards violence as a means of expression or activism continue to arrive in Canada each year.”
Carrique repeated those claims Tuesday, but did not name the countries where the association members believed these immigrants had originated.
However, he noted that police have an “enormous responsibility” to reach out to various communities, including areas with new immigrants, in order to build trust.
“In some cases, there is distrust for police and some people may come from areas where police are corrupt,” Carrique said.
Asked about those claims, a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Marc Miller’s office did not address them directly. Instead, the office provided a statement saying it was working to reduce current immigration volumes to manage the affordability crisis in Canada and that it condemns all violence against anyone, “including immigrants.”
Carrique said police will need more officers, equipment and training to deal with the protests, which will require additional government funding.
A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told Global News the federal government agrees police officers are increasingly “called upon to respond to complex, difficult situations that go beyond what would traditionally be seen as the traditional duties of a police officer,” particularly during “these turbulent times.”
“We will continue to be there, alongside provincial and municipal governments, to support them within our federal jurisdiction, to provide them with the resources they need on a daily basis, and to improve the environment in which they carry out their work,” spokesperson Jean-Sébastien Comeau said in a statement.
The association is also calling for legislation that would make it illegal to target police by doxxing: releasing personal information on social media or other online platforms with malicious intent.
The group’s resolution states “there has been an increase in online activity by protesters targeting (e.g. doxing) police officers,” and seeks to amend the Online Harms Act introduced earlier this year that is currently making its way through Parliament.
Comeau noted in his statement that disinformation and hateful rhetoric on social media are adding “complexity” to the work of police.
Halifax Regional Police Chief Don MacLean told reporters Tuesday that such a law wouldn’t discourage people from criticizing police for their mistakes.
“It’s the way you use the tool (social media) that is what’s important,” he said. “There is a level of discourse that occurs that I think goes beyond what is necessary and I think that’s what we are talking about.”
—with files from The Canadian Press
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