{"id":685,"date":"2013-10-09T18:28:41","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T18:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dci-canada.org\/?p=685"},"modified":"2017-06-11T23:23:10","modified_gmt":"2017-06-11T23:23:10","slug":"time-to-end-carding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unmannedballoon.com\/?p=685","title":{"rendered":"Time to End Carding"},"content":{"rendered":"

DCI President Agnes Samler, wrote an opinion piece regarding the carding of Toronto’s<\/A> youth by police officers. Her letter was published in the Reader’s<\/a> Letter section of the Toronto Star on October 5th. Click here<\/a> to be directed to the Toronto Star website or scroll below to read the letter in it’s entirety.<\/p>\n

Devastating, Unacceptable,\u2019 Sept. 28 <\/em><\/p>\n

The practice of \u201ccarding\u201d is a violation of human rights, pure and simple. To stop a young person\u00a0without cause, to ask their name and birthdate, where they live and where they are going, to\u00a0demand the names of their friends or to search their belongings, these are violations of our most\u00a0basic rights.<\/em><\/p>\n

Attempts have been made to justify the practice. It has been described as a way to help the police\u00a0solve crimes but does that mean any right can be violated? And when did we decide that the\u00a0police have the power to choose which rights to violate?<\/em><\/p>\n

A second justification is that it is mostly a practice in high crime areas. Does that mean if you\u00a0live in a particular area, or are a member of a minority group, you have fewer rights? I<\/a> wonder\u00a0how long carding would be tolerated if it took place on the corner of King and Bay Sts. or\u00a0outside of<\/A> an expensive private school?\u00a0It has also been said that carding creates no harm. Ask a young person how it feels to be carded.\u00a0It is often a demeaning and frightening experience and there is the added fear that a police record\u00a0is being created which is permanent.<\/em><\/p>\n

Finally, police have referred to carding as a way to get to know the community and form positive\u00a0relationships. I once asked a group of young people what would happen if they talked to<\/a> a police\u00a0officer about their rights when being carded. The group exploded with hoots of laughter and one\u00a0young man summed it up by saying, \u201cYou would just get your face busted.\u201d Whether true or not\u00a0that was the consensus of the group.<\/em><\/p>\n

The police now give out receipts to people who are carded, an approach that makes little sense to\u00a0young people. There is also talk of reforming the carding system. But when you have a practice\u00a0that is discriminatory and harmful, one that inherently violates rights, the answer is not to modify\u00a0the practice but to end it.<\/em><\/p>\n

This would also be a good time to expunge the records of the hundreds of thousands of citizens\u00a0who have been carded without charge or arrest.<\/em><\/p>\n

Agnes Samler, President, Defence for Children International-Canada, Toronto<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DCI President Agnes Samler, wrote an opinion piece regarding the carding of Toronto’s youth by police officers. Her letter was published in the Reader’s Letter section of the Toronto Star on October 5th. Click here to be directed to the Toronto Star website or scroll below to read the letter in it’s entirety. Devastating, Unacceptable,\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,17],"tags":[22,24,25],"class_list":["post-685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-youthjustice","tag-human-rights","tag-toronto","tag-youth-justice"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unmannedballoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unmannedballoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unmannedballoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unmannedballoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unmannedballoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unmannedballoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unmannedballoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unmannedballoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unmannedballoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}