Queer Ontario’s Letter to Gary Smith, Chief of Police, Windsor Police Service, Supporting His Decision to Include Anti-Homophobia Training as a Mandatory Part of Police Training (January 20, 2011)
January 20, 2011
Gary Smith
Chief of Police
Windsor Police Service
Police Headquarters
150 Goyeau Street
P.O. Box 60
Windsor, ON N9A 6J5
Dear Police Chief Smith,
Queer Ontario writes to you today to commend your inclusion of Egale Canada’s Report Homophobic Violence Period presentation as a mandatory ongoing part of training your force. Your commitment to “reinforce the force’s knowledge of basic human rights” and to “increase the force’s empathy toward this particular community within our society” through anti-homophobia training is a welcoming sign for LGBT communities in Windsor as well as across Ontario.
By requiring all officers and staff of the Windsor Police Service to undergo anti-homophobia training, you are working towards fostering a more positive and fruitful relationship between your police force and the LGBT community in the Windsor area. Given the inequitable treatment the LGBT community experiences at times with regards to the law and enforcement, it is a positive sign that a police service is taking ownership of the need to further educate themselves on the issues affecting our community. Indeed, by encouraging your officers to reconsider their pre-conceived notions of LGBT people and to familiarize themselves with the issues facing LGBT communities in Ontario, you are demonstrating true leadership when it comes to professionally serving all Windsor residents, regardless their sexual orientation or gender identity. Hopefully, this education will be adequately enacted at the street level, leading to a strengthened relationship between the LGBT Community and the Windsor Police Service.
In closing, we wish you all the best in your implementation and enforcement of the mandatory anti-homophobia
training throughout the force. We can only hope that your fellow Police Commissioners across Ontario will make the same commitment to equity and to better policing.
Sincerely,
Casey Oraa
Chair
Political Action
Queer Ontario
Cc: Helen Kennedy, Executive Director, Egale Canada