The integral problem with policing in Canada lies in the fact that we expect too much of front-line police officers and train them for roles that are in gross dissimilarity to the ones they actually play in society.

What’s needed is a thorough reform of the policing system itself.

The evidence of this mismatch is clear. Take, for example, the case in Toronto of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old woman who recently fell to her death from the balcony of her 24th-floor apartment minutes after police arrived in response to a call from her family who wanted them to take her to a mental health facility.

And the case in Montréal where police shot Nicholas Gibbs, who had a history of mental health issues, alleging that they had approached to break up a fight between him and another man.

And the police–related deaths of Machuar Madut, Jaskamal Singh, and Andrew Loku, each of whom had a history of mental illness.

These situations, like so many others, could have been delegated to non-police agencies, such as the Canadian Mental Health Association or a group like Toronto’s mobile health team, which are trained to calm things down and de-escalate.

Source: Defunding police isn’t the answer, there’s a fundamental imbalance that must be fixed | CBC News

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