Tory vows to improve ‘polarized’ relationship between police, services board and community

These are "increasingly polarized on all sides," he told reporters, which Tory said is "impeding progress" on reforms of police practices.

Tory said these reforms are necessary to give all residents confidence in how police do their jobs.

A report commissioned by the board on the practice of "carding" – stopping and questioning people on a voluntary basis - embarrassed the force this month because it found police in one North York division weren’t following new, more restrictive rules for carding the board had introduced this summer.

Chief Bill Blair disputed the facts of the report, and called comments reacting to the findings by Alok Mukherjee, the board chairperson, "reckless."

A special board meeting to discuss the report this week was cancelled, leaving the matter for a police board reconstituted next week for Tory’s term of office.

Tory on Thursday, Nov. 27, said he hasn’t decided whether to take a seat on the police board himself, but where Ford was fond of declaring he supported rank-and-file Toronto police, the mayor in waiting said he’ll use "personal leadership" to see they respond to community concerns.

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• Dec 31, 1969
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Tory shortly faces both contract talks with the police force and the need to choose a replacement for Blair, whose contract expires in April.

During his talk, just days before he assumes his office, Tory seemed to refer to a dispute within the board itself, mentioning its members have written press releases and open letters aimed at each other.

This occurred over the summer after Michael Thompson, the vice-chairperson, called in a media interview for a "shakeup" of the force, adding he wouldn’t support extending Blair’s contract.

Other board members then voted to stop Thompson, a Scarborough councillor, from voting on the contract, alleging he had broken a code of conduct by speaking about personnel matters. The board later let the matter drop, after Thompson hired lawyers who applied to a court for a review of the decision.

Also at his State of the City address, Tory, who was criticized during the election campaign for not speaking enough about the city’s rising rates of poverty, particularly child poverty, called both "obviously unacceptable," and said he wanted the city to form a poverty-reduction strategy to "provide as much measurable improvement as possible."

He also said he wanted to apply himself to reducing the city’s high level of youth unemployment, which is above the national average, and to have the province remedy its "disgraceful" lack of support for Torontonians with mental health issues.