Strengthen police anti-racism, mental health training after shooting death of Black man, inquest says

A coroner's jury probing the police shooting death of a Black man in mental distress seven years ago is calling on police forces across Ontario to strengthen training in anti-Black racism, implicit bias and mental health awareness.

The jurors' 35 recommendations — released last Friday — are also aimed at the Ministry of the Solicitor General, Peel Regional Police and the Peel Housing Corporation. They came out after almost three weeks of testimony in an inquest into the death of Marc Boekwa Diza Ekamba of Mississauga, who was 22 at the time.

You can read all 35 recommendations at the end of this story.

"I am grateful for the work and recommendations of the coroner's jury but nothing they do can bring Marc back to us," Chanel Felizor, Ekamba's sister, said in a statement. 

"I just want the police to stop killing Black men."

The coroner's jury was told Peel Regional Police officers shot Ekamba 11 times in his Mississauga  public housing unit on March 20, 2015 while responding to a neighbour's complaint. They opened fire after Ekamba stabbed two of the officers with a kitchen knife, and refused to drop it. There were 19 shots fired in all.  A woman who lived next door was also badly injured.

The provincial police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), found there were no grounds for criminal charges against the officers. But advocates say Ekamba and his family had shown signs of mental distress and if they'd gotten the help they needed, police intervention would not have been necessary.

The recommendations come in the wake of several cases in recent years in which people of colour in mental distress have ben killed in confrontations with police in the Greater Toronto Area. Last year, the SIU cleared Peel officers of any wrongdoing after they fatally shot Ejaz Choudry, 62, during a wellness check in June of 2020. Police officers were also present in 2020 when Regis Korchinski-Paquet, 29, fell to her death from her high-rise apartment balcony in Toronto. 

"Perhaps the jury, like me, like so many others, are tired of having this addressed piecemeal by piecemeal when people die in encounters with particular police services in Ontario," said Jennifer Chambers, the executive director of Empowerment Council, an advocacy group that participates in inquests involving people in crisis killed by police.

According to the SIU report, on March 20 2015 at 10:00 p.m., Peel officers responded to a complaint at 3070 Queen Frederica Dr.  A neighbour had said Ekamba's mother had called her a "witch," had threatened her with death and had thrown a knife at her.

The report says the officers tried to arrest Ekamba, who responded by attacking police with the knife. Police then tried to arrest his mother after she struck one of the officers on the head with a metal pot, allowing Ekamba to slip free. He returned knife in hand and screamed at the officers to release his mother. Police then drew their firearms and ordered Ekamba to stop. When he didn't, the report says all three officers fired their weapons.

Jurors were read a transcript from another proceeding that said Ekamba had believed police were trying to "do something" to him. The transcript said both he and his mother had "visions," "revelations" and premonitions that led them to make fake plans to kill the neighbours so they could draw police onto their property. But according to his mother's testimony in that proceeding, they had no intention of actually killing or harming anyone.

According to the Toronto Star, officers testified at the inquest that race was not a factor, the victims purported mental state did not affect their approach and they wouldn't have done anything differently. It was also reported that at the time, one of the officers had "very minimal" training on how to handle mental health-related calls and racialized communities in crisis, and that they used no de-escalation techniques.

The jury's recommendations also include: