'Real despair': High-ranking Toronto police officer felt isolation, mistreatment at TPS pushed her to help officers cheat on exam, lawyer says
CTV
The first female Black superintendent in Toronto Police Service history was attempting to diversify the ranks on her own when she helped six constables cheat in a promotions exam, her lawyer told a police tribunal.
The first female Black superintendent in Toronto Police Service history was in despair over what she believed was systemic mistreatment of Black officers and was attempting to diversify the ranks on her own when she helped six constables cheat in a promotions exam, her lawyer told a police tribunal Monday.
Supt. Stacy Clarke was “frustrated and desperate” at the slow pace of change in the service and believed her efforts to promote qualified Black candidates were falling on deaf ears, lawyer Joseph Markson said during the tribunal hearing that will ultimately determine her punishment within the organization.
“As the first Black female superintendent in the history of the Toronto Police Service, Supt. Clarke has been running uphill and against the wind for more than 26 years,” said lawyer Joseph Markson.
“In these unique and extraordinary circumstances, there is a straight line in connecting systemic discrimination in policing towards Blacks, Supt. Clarke’s lived experience, and the facts of misconduct to which she had pled guilty. She is extremely remorseful for her misconduct. However those acts of misconduct were rooted in real despair, real hurt and real pain.”
Clarke pleaded guilty last fall to seven counts of professional misconduct for her role in providing pictures of questions and answers to officers in the promotional process, which marred an otherwise unblemished career, the tribunal heard.
The misconduct could merit a dismissal, but Chief Myron Demkiw still believes “this officer still has work to do,” said the TPS representative at the hearing, lawyer Scott Hutchison.
“There’s good reason to question whether a senior officer who engaged in conduct like this has a realistic role in the service in the future. I want to be clear that’s not the penalty I’ll be asking you to consider,” said Hutchison, saying he does not object to evidence and witnesses that could shed light on what he called a “pernicious problem of anti-Black racism.”
A miniature Christmas village made of decorative houses and buildings has been slowly growing in a Regina home.
With the number of homeless people in Saskatoon at an unprecedented high, it’s no surprise people are looking for places to warm up.
The next chapter of the Lemay Forest saga has unfolded as the sounds of trees coming down could be heard Monday.
The stormy weather in the forecast for B.C.'s South Coast is already disrupting many Christmas Day travel plans.
A break in, theft, and continued property damage has led to the boarding up of the Palace Theatre over the Christmas holidays.
Police in Nova Scotia are investigating after two deaths in Truro, N.S., over the weekend have been ruled homicides.
Calgary police shut down Glenmore Trail overnight following a crash between a car and a crane truck.
Ontario's Human Rights Tribunal has awarded members of an Indigenous family in North Bay $15,000 each after it ruled they were victims of discrimination.
A heavy snowfall has guaranteed much of Quebec a white Christmas, but it has also sent cars skidding off the province's roads during the busy holiday travel period.
For many of the women attending My Sister’s Place (MSP) in London, Ont. the holidays are a difficult time.
RCMP in New Brunswick are investigating after a business in Janeville was broken into and a number of items were stolen.