The issue of carding, which has been a subject of much debate in the City of Toronto, may be over. It appears that the Ontario government has taken its own steps on carding and out of the hands of Toronto’s lawmakers.
What it means is that the arbitrary practice, by police, will soon be illegal in Ontario. It’s a controversial practice that has been heavily criticized by civil rights activists. The surprise announcement came from Ontario’s Minister of Community Safety, Yasir Naqvi.
"The government is committed to banning street checks, or carding, as an arbitrary way of stopping people and collecting information when there’s no cause," Naqvi said.
Critics have long claimed that carding discriminates against ethnic, cultural and religious groups and is nothing less than racial profiling. But police forces in some urban centers, such as Toronto, have defended the practice as a necessary law enforcement tool
Naqvi says he is not trying to prevent police from doing their jobs, but he insists that civil rights must come first. And he says in the coming weeks, there will be clear guidelines about when police can stop an individual, what information they can collect and how.
Members of the Ontario legislature voted unanimously last week to ban the practice of carding. Some critics, while applauding the decision, still have concerns about exactly how the new guidelines will work, especially how they will stop police from engaging in arbitrary stops.
