Defunding the Police: What it Could Mean for Mental Health in Canada

Two days after footage of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota sent shockwaves around the world and sparked protests against police brutality and racism, a Toronto woman named Regis Korchinski-Paquet fell 24 floors to her death after her mother had called police to take her to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. While the role of the police in this tragedy is being investigated, experts in Canada are joining those in the United States who are calling for defunding the police. But what is defunding and what could it mean for mental health in Canada? We answer some of the questions you may have.

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How much funding do police in Canada get?

According to Statistics Canada, in the 2017/2018 fiscal year, police operating expenditures reached $15.1 billion, up 2% from the previous year. Capital expenditures, which included items like equipment and vehicles, amounted to more than $666 million. Total police expenditures came to about $400 per capita.

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What do people who are calling for defunding the police mean by the term?

Sandy Hudson of Black Lives Matter Toronto explained to Global News that defunding the police means redirecting portions of police budgets to other services. These would include mental health services, social support services and transit.

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Does defunding the police mean there won’t be police anymore?

Defunding the police does not mean getting rid of the police altogether. However, the police are currently the first responders when someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, University of Toronto-Mississauga assistant professor of sociology Akwasi Owusu-Bempah told The Toronto Star. Reallocating resources so that the experts can deal with mental health and substance abuse issues will free the police up to get back to actual policing.

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Is the idea of defunding the police a new one?

Akwasi Owusu-Bempah told Global News that talk of defunding the police has been going on for decades, especially in connection with racism and violence towards black and Indigenous communities in the country. Regis Korchinski-Paquet was black and Indigenous. There have been several high-profile cases that involved police killing people of colour having a mental health crisis, such as that of Andrew Loku in 2015, which prompted an Ontario Human Rights Commission inquiry into racial profiling by the police.

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How much of the police’s work entails dealing with mental health issues?

Toronto Police Services spokesperson Meaghan Gray told The Toronto Star that out of nearly one million calls the city’s police respond to, about 30,000 calls are mental health related. The city also has mobile crisis intervention teams that consist of trained officers paired with mental health nurses and they respond to about 6,000 calls per year. These teams don’t respond to calls where a weapon may be involved.

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Are police officers in Canada trained to deal with mental health issues?

According to Toronto Police Services spokesperson Meaghan Gray, all police officers receive annual training in dealing with mental health issues. Their training includes courses on communication and de-escalation techniques. RCMP officers across the country are receiving similar training and in several cities they are already teaming up with mental health experts.

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Who would deal with mental health-related calls if the police were defunded?

Akwasi Owusu-Bempah told CTV News that if resources were reallocated, there could be a service, similar to 911, that people could call during mental health emergencies. They would then be attended to by mental health care workers who are properly trained and equipped to deal with these emergencies.

Speaking to The Toronto Star, Camille Quenneville, CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Ontario division, said that the province already has two crisis centres where police can take people having a mental health crisis. The Gerstein Centre in Toronto is an example of a 24-hour community based crisis centre with a mobile response team.

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What about the role of systemic racism in how police deal with mental health issues?

In Canada, the Ontario Human Rights Commission found that between 2013 and 2017, a black person in Toronto was 20 times more likely than a white person to be fatally shot by the Toronto Police Service. A study by Columbia Law School, published in May 2020, found that even when police have received better mental health training, there was no evidence that this reduced fatal shootings of people having a mental health crisis and that the racial disparities in police killings remained.

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Would the police still have a role in dealing with mental health related calls after defunding?

Akwasi Owusu-Bempah told CTV News that while there would be a new emergency service for mental health crises, it would still run alongside the police services. In some cases, the person having the crisis could pose a serious risk to themselves and others and a police presence could be necessary.

Person wearing a t-shirt denouncing racism, homophobia, sexism and violence

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What can you do?

If you believe that defunding the police can help create a better Canada, you can start by letting your elected representatives know. In several Canadian cities people are already signing petitions calling for defunding of the police. You can also learn how to be an ally to people of colour.

In terms of policing and mental health, program the contact details of your local mental health crisis centre into your phone so that you can call them directly if someone is having a mental health crisis, instead of putting the burden on police who may not really be equipped to deal with the situation in the best way.

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