MSA Says No to Proposed Increase to the Toronto Police Budget

MSA Says No to Proposed Increase to the Toronto Police Budget

The Municipal Socialist Alliance says 'NO' to the proposed increase to the Toronto police budget. The notion that the hike is a step towards enhanced public safety is completely ill-conceived.

While most residents who addressed the recent Police Board hearing called for measures to address mental health, affordable housing and police accountability, the appointed Board members ignored them and sided with the few Business Improvement Area reps. Every dollar that goes to the police is money diverted from community centers, health facilities and affordable housing.

Only months after Toronto Police admitted to subjecting Toronto's Black, Indigenous and racialized people to a disproportionate use of force, the Board decided to increase policing without addressing its failure to reverse the harm it has caused for so long. Many see this as a step towards furthering criminalization and micro policing of poor and marginalized people.

The Municipal Socialist Alliance stands with the many negatively affected communities in rejecting the proposed police budget as worse than a band aid solution to violence in Toronto. We oppose shoving the money of hard working taxpayers into the maw of a violent and bigoted institution.”