About 60 people gathered in front of the Waterloo Region Police Services (WRPS) building in Kitchener on Friday to protest the fatal shooting by police of Nicholas Nembhard, a 31-year-old Black man.
Nembhard was killed in the evening of Feb. 19, the third such fatal shooting in the region since 2007. Police confirmed Feb. 20 that the Special Investigations Unit was investigating the shooting.
The next day, on Feb. 21, the African, Caribbean, and Black Network (ACBN) put out a statement condemning the WRPS’ killing of Nembhard, a “Black man in distress due to a mental health crisis.”
Organizers of the Friday demonstration explained why they felt the gathering was necessary and explained their demands of police, including changes to responses to mental health calls.
But some people felt organizers had not done enough to include the Black community and had used the killing of a Black man to push their own agenda.
As the Waterloo Region’s Police board is discussing the next police budget, Radio Waterloo sat with Dr. Kathy Hoghart, an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work in University of Waterloo, and former advisor to police chief Brian Larkin, on issues of race.
The discussion covers the widespread calls to reallocate police budget money into other services that can more competently do the work the police have been tasked with, and issues of systemic racism within the WRPS and policing generally.
In the last few months the police board received several reports that clearly show the police bias against black and indigenous people. While board members were surprised by those reports, Dr. Hoghart wasn’t surprised at all.
— This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news. You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. And you can email news@radiowaterloo.ca to get in touch with comments or ideas about stories to cover.
The music was Blackroom by Moby, courtesy of mobygratis.com
Black Lives Matter of Waterloo Region, along with other Black and African organizations in the Region, started a petition for the police to drop the charges against Irene Ekweozoh, a Waterloo based PhD candidate in law.
Ekweozoh was arrested on September 20th, after problems with her White neighbour in their apartment building.
The issues began in February, when, according to Ekweozoh and the police report, after an argument, her neighbour unleashed a dog on her and her 13 year old daughter. The police told Ekweozoh that charges were not warranted against her neighbour in that incident.
In this episode you will hear from: Irene Ekweozoh, PhD student targeted for arrest by Waterloo regional police, Fanis Juma an organizer with Black Lives Matter of Waterloo Region, Tapiwa Jabhama from the African Canadian Association, as well as Fidelia Otokhina and Promise O Williams from the Nigerians in the Region of Waterloo.
In a statement from the regional police service’s public relations department it was noted that “anyone with concerns about police conduct or professionalism can call to speak to a supervisor to relay their concerns or issue a formal complaint at 519-570-9777 (WRPS). Complaints about police conduct can also be filed with the Ontario Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) here:www.oiprd.on.ca.”
— This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news. You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. And you can email news@radiowaterloo.ca to get in touch with comments or ideas about stories to cover.
The music was Blackroom by Moby, courtesy of mobygratis.com
On May 27, 2020, in the High Park neighbourhood in Toronto, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old black-indigenous woman, ended up dead after an encounter with Toronto police. The police were originally called by her mother to try to de-escalate an unsafe mental health situation.
All of this is under several investigations, so I’m very careful with words.
One of those investigations – the one by the Special Investigations Unit, the SIU – unit that’s supposed to investigate police misconduct in Ontario, cleared all the police officers that were at the scene.
The decision sparked a new set of anti-racism protests across Canada, a series of protests started after the murder of George Floyd in the States.
Whatever the truth is, and probably only people who were in that apartment know what it is, the case goes to the list of cases in which people with mental problems ended up dead after coming across police officers in Ontario, like Ejaz Choudry, Ian Pryce, and Andrew Loku, among others.
In Toronto, an organization Doctors for defunding police started a petition, now signed by 622 Canadian doctors and health professionals, warning that policing in this country is a public health crisis and calling for a change on how this society is reacting to mental health, and other issues.
In this program, we’re talking with doctor Suzanne Shoush and medical student Semir Bulle, from the University of Toronto who started the organization.
White text in all capitals on a black background reading “Wellness checks should never be a death sentence.” @drsdefundpolice”. Image courtesy of Doctors For Defunding Polcie
— This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
