Ottawa directing RCMP to eliminate neck restraints, tear gas and rubber bullets: Mendicino

Two years after the murder of George Floyd, the Canadian government says it will soon order the RCMP to ban the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and neck restraints.

In an interview with CBC News on the second anniversary ofFloyd's death in police custody,Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said his office willin the coming daysinstruct RCMP Commissioner Brenda Luckito endthe police force'suse of these controversialtechniques.

Although the federal government doesn't oversee local police forces, Mendicinosaid he hopes his directive to the RCMP will serveas a blueprint for reform in other police services acrossthe country.

"There are some police services that have already taken those steps, but we think that with a new and modernized set of policies around the use of force by the RCMP, it can serve as a role model for other law enforcement branches across the country," Mendicino told CBC.

When pressed for further details, the minister said he anticipates the RCMP will work toward ending itsuse of thesetechniques by the end of the year.

Figures obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin under access to information law show the neck restrainttechnique while rare is still in use in Canada.

The RCMP has argued that the neck restraint technique applies pressure to both sides of a person's neck without restricting the airway and causes a brief period of unconsciousness that allows police officers to place an individual in handcuffs.

Every three years, the RCMP says, officers must undergo refresher training on the use of the neck restraint technique and tear gas.

The RCMP has been reviewing its use of neck restraints since Floyd's murder. Sometimes referred to as the carotid restraint, the "sleeper hold" or the"blood choke," it differs from the restraint used by the Minneapolis police officer who killed Floyd.

Floyd died after then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on hisneck for more than eight minutes. Jurors found Chauvinguilty of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and he was sentenced to 22-and-a-halfyears in prison. Chauvin is appealing.

According to a briefing note obtained by CBC News, the RCMP still allows its officers to place a knee on an individual's upper body in some instances.

The Sunday Magazine23:37Why we need to know more than just George Floyd's name

Wednesday will mark the two-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder. Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa join Piya Chattopadhyay to discuss the life of the man whose death, under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, sparked an international conversation about race, and whose name came to symbolize racial injustice and police brutality in the United States. Their new book, His Name Is George Floyd, shows how systemic racism shaped Floyd's life, and how he repeatedly tried to rise above it. Samuels and Olorunnipa interviewed more than 400 people, including lawyers, teachers, family members, and friends to tell Floyd's story, revealing all the ways he was loved, and how he arrived at his fateful final day.

CommisionerLuckihas said the carotid restraintholdis at the far end of the continuum of police use of force, on par with using a firearm.

"It's when something serious or death or bodily harm is going to happen," she said in 2020.

Reacting to the news, Alain Babineau, a consultant on public safety and racial profiling issues and a former RCMP officer, said he's not sure whether eliminating these control measures is the right move. He said he wants to see theevidence on which the government is basing its decision.

"Now if we start limiting the intervention tools for the police, then we are limiting the options they have," Babineau said. "If firearms become the only option, thenit's reasonable to think that things might go very badly at times."

Non-policing solutions emerging

During the interview with CBC News, Mendicino said his government is committed to reforming law enforcement in Canada a positionthat clashes with calls from some Black Lives Matter protesters for police servicesto be stripped of their funding or even abolished.

Despite resistance from politicians,one police abolitionist said the movement has been successful in curbing the growth of policing and, in some cases, reducing its footprint in some communities.

Robin Browne, a leader in Ottawa's Black community, said activists have been successful in freezing police budgets and eliminating the presence of police officers in schools.

"Progress has been madebut there's definitely work to do," Browne said.

Browne and others say they would like to see communities redirect funds to non-policing solutions such as a pilot project underway in Canada's largest city.

This year, an $11 million pilot project was launched in Toronto after the deaths ofEjaz Choudry, D'Andre Campbell and Regis Korchinski-Paquetin encounters withpolice. All three individuals were experiencing mental health crises when they died.

The pilot project sees 911 and 211 operators connect some callerswith community services for people incrisis not with theToronto Police Service. It's considered one themost extensive non-police alternative response programs to emerge in Canada sinceFloyd's murder.

One of the organizations involved in the pilot is the Gerstein Crisis Centre. Its staff runs a crisis hotlineand sometimes sends a mobile team outto clients.

"Many communities, like the Black, Indigenous and people of colour, are already traumatized (by police)," said crisis intervention workerDarna Savariau-Daley. "So having somebody in a uniform, having somebody with authority, having somebody come in to say, you know, you have to go with us, it adds further trauma."

WATCH |The National talks toDenise Campbell about the policing alternative pilot project:

Toronto program aims to respond to mental health calls without police

3 years ago

Duration 6:17

After the deaths of Ejaz Choudry, DAndre Campbell and Regis Korchinski-Paquet, the City of Toronto has launched an $11-million program to create teams that can respond to mental health calls without police officers. Ian Hanomansing speaks to Denise Campbell, the woman leading that effort.

Taibu, a community health centre that focuses on Toronto's Black community, participates in the pilot. Its executive director Liben Gebremikael draws a direct line between Floyd's murder, the death of Korchinski-Paquet and other cases ofCanadians dying in police custody.

"(It) put institutions and organizations in a position where they could no longer ignore the challenges that the community has been facing for generations," he said.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check outBeing Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of.