Canadian Race Relations Foundation

The report outlines various topics and turning points of the 2000 Conference. Topics of discussion include police reports on the use of force, issues surrounding mental health, racism and police shootings, and cultural barriers. Other aspects of the report focus on specific case studies, community reports, community and police relations, and notes from an open discussion panel. The report also puts forward recommendations from many discussions during the conference along with providing a selected bibliography.

Historically disadvantaged ethno-racial communities and the community of psychiatric consumer / survivors in Toronto sense that police shootings are connected to being targeted, over policed, criminalized and maligned by law enforcement agencies, the media and some politicians. Their lack of faith in the justice system lowers their hopes for fair treatment over what they see as the overuse of deadly force by police and exacerbates often adversarial police-community relations. Also implicated is the failure on the part of society to encourage examination and adoption of alternative procedures for de-escalating or restraining aggressive or mentally disturbed people in situations of crisis. (p. 1).