Ja-born Canadian cop Stacy Clarke appealing demotion

A Jamaican-Canadian who is the second highest-ranking black woman in the Toronto Police Service (TPS) is appealing a tribunal decision to demote her.

In September 2023, Stacy Clarke pleaded guilty to seven charges – three counts of breach of confidence, three counts of discreditable conduct, and one count of insubordination. These charges arose from her attempt to assist six black constables she mentored, who were pursuing promotions to sergeant in 2021, by supplying them with questions and answers for the promotion process.

On August 28, 2024, retired South Simcoe Police Service Deputy Chief Robin McElary-Downer, the tribunal hearing officer, took a decision to demote Clarke from superintendent to inspector for two years, following which she will become eligible to reapply for promotion.

In a September 26, 2024 notice of appeal, Ravin Pillay, Clarke’s counsel, noted that his client will appeal to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission to have the penalty varied to one other than demotion to the rank of inspector for 24 months, with the automatic reinstatement to the rank of superintendent following any period of demotion imposed.

Among the grounds of appeal are that the current penalty without automatic reinstatement to the rank of superintendent is “excessive, harsh, unwarranted and disproportionate”.

The notice contends that the hearing officer failed to place sufficient weight on the collateral consequence of a pension at the reduced inspector rate and without reinstatement.

INSUFFICIENT WEIGHT TO MITIGATING FACTORS

“The hearing officer placed undue weight on clearly distinguishable precedent in coming to her disposition. While the hearing officer acknowledged overt and systemic anti-black racism and the appellant’s lived experience of racism, she failed to give sufficient weight to these and other importing mitigating factors. The hearing officer erred in failing to apprehend that this case was unique, given, even on her own assessment, there are no similar matters with which to compare,” said the notice.

The notice of appeal said the hearing officer erred in considering her “own lived experience” in measuring what she perceived as “progress” in assessing the appropriate sentence.

It said the hearing officer misapprehended the evidence when she made core findings such as the following: “Rather, as evidenced, the Service is taking great strides to rectify, improve and implement change on a number of fronts. Further, there is no evidence before me to suggest that at any stage, pre the misconduct, Superintendent Clarke expressed concern in regard to the fairness of the promotion process for Black officers and she was ignored. She in fact participated in several focus groups in regard to the design of the new process. Perhaps if the Service was doing nothing, I could be persuaded that a systemic barrier influenced Superintendent Clarke’s conduct. But this is not the case.”

In August, McElary-Downer noted that, outside of this incident, Clarke had led an admirable career and described her as “a rock star in policing”.

She said the matter had drawn significant social media attention, some of which contained “cruel hate spreading racism”, and, in her years of adjudicating, it was the first time she had heard of “a risk assessment being completed out of concern for the safety of a subject officer”.

The notice of appeal said the hearing officer failed to apprehend and/or give sufficient weight the evidence of the collateral consequence to marginalised communities served by the TPS should the appellant not be automatically reinstated as superintendent.

Four past presidents of the Jamaican Canadian Association, who attended the tribunal hearing in May and the decision on August 28, were critical of the penalty and described it as harsh.

In 2021, Clarke became the first black woman to serve as superintendent in the history of the Toronto Police Service. In June this year, Kelly Skinner became the first black officer to reach the rank of staff superintendent, one rank below deputy chief.

editorial@gleanerjm.com