Law Enforcement and Washington Post

death tables: The crime is that it should have to be said at all, over and over again, according to Toronto Star. There not much for Canadians to feel smug about, merely because the death tables of blacks killed by law enforcement pale, even in ratio terms, compared to the U.S. According to a Washington Post analysis of data — 986 slain by law enforcement in total last year — blacks were killed at three times the rate of whites, and 40 per cent of them were unarmed when confronted by cops. It shouldn’t have taken a worldwide movement to accentuate the fact that blacks are disproportionately killed, over-policed and racially profiled. While Canada averages about 25 fatal shootings by police annually , Statistics Canada doesn’t compile race-based stats; neither does the Special Investigations Unit or any other oversight agency in Ontario. The SIU was born in 1990 out of public protest and resulting task forces, primarily in the wake of two 1988 fatal police shootings of blacks — Lester Donaldson, a disabled man with schizophrenia and a history of violence against police, confronted in his own home; and Michael Wade Lawson, shot by a Peel officer while the teenager was driving a stolen vehicle. They’re very good, the SIU, at withholding information that would be useful in documenting trends or at the very least delineating areas of concern. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.