CHIEF BILL BLAIR: I believe the greatest challenge facing the
members of the Toronto Police Service and
police services right across Canada is how
we respond to persons in crisis. Over 20,000
times, each year, members of our service respond to persons in crisis and these are very complex,
difficult and sometimes dangerous encounters.
We want to make sure that we are able to full
fill our commitment to preserve life. In the
aftermath of these events I am required by
law to examine our polices, our procedures, the equipment and the training we provide
to our police officers. And I believe this
is such a important issues that I went to
an independent source, Justice Iacobucci,
who was a man of extraordinary wisdom and
credibility. I asked him to look at our policies, our procedures, our training and equipment.
I asked him to do an international search
of best practices, I asked him to make a recommendation
on how we could improve. Justice Iacobucci in his very comprehensive
report makes 84 recommendations. Eighty four recommendations that upon implementation will
enable us to improve the quality of our response. I believe that they are excellent, I believe
that they are comprehensive, that Justice
Iacobucci has taken a very objective and broad
ranging view of the critical issues facing
the Toronto Police Service and I believe he
has provided us with an excellent roadmap
as we move forward.
In his report Justice Iacobucci reminds us
that the police response is part of a larger
mental health system. And that system has
many components and those components include
the psychiatric facilities that we work in
partnership with, a number of communities,
support organizations, psychiatric survivors, advocates on behalf of the community. The
police response is an important one, but we recognize that we work as part of the system
and as we go forward in the implementation of these recommendations, the report also
recommends, and we agree that we should do that in consultation and in collaboration
with our community partners. And to that end, we will be forming a, an implementation advisory
group which will be made up of individuals
and representatives of those partners that
we have in the mental health system including psychiatric survivors. Our goal has to be
zero deaths. We want to make sure that wherever possible, we save lives, and we will go forward
with these recommendations with that commitment. and you know when police officers join this
job, they do it with the intent of serving,
they answer a call to duty, they make a commitment
to serving and protecting all of the people
of Toronto. And perhaps no one is more in
need of that service and that protection than persons in crisis. To that end the police
service has to recognize and acknowledge our responsibility and provide our people with
the best direction, the best training and
the best tools so that they can full fill
the mission we have all committed ourselves to. We want to make sure a well, that the
people of our city and particularly those
individuals and families who experience this
type of critical incident know of our commitment and our resolve.
There is a very important section in Justice
Iacobucci's report regarding the psychological
health and well being of members of the Toronto Police Service, and the support that we provide
to our officers who answer these critical
incidents. Everyday police officers are exposed
to traumatic events, they go to violent incidents, they see people in crisis and they deal sometimes
with very dangerous and difficult situations.
And we ask them to do it with the absolute
unwavering commitment to the safety of our citizens, and we have to demonstrate a commitment
to them as well. We have already established a psychological
services within our organization, and we have an employment family assistance program. But
he makes recommendations on how we can improve and so we have a responsibility to, as Justice
Iacobucci points out, to provide strong support to our members.
I think there are lessons that can be learned in this report as we move forward together
in the implementations of these recommendations that will improve quality, not only of the
polio response, but of society's response.
And I think we can all learn from the compassion
that is so evident in Justice Iacobucci's
report. This is our citizens, our family members,
our friends who are impacted by mental health issues and who can find ourselves tragically
involved in these critical situations. We
are encouraged to work collaboratively together,
we are encouraged to consult with one another, and to go forward on this together and I think
we have a responsibility to live up to that.
And Justice Iacobucci's report provides us
with a roadmap, a way forward. (Which) will help us all improve the quality of our response
to keep the people of Toronto safe.
