The Ontario Human Rights Commission says numbers uncovered during an inquiry into Toronto police suggests black city residents are right to be concerned about their interactions with the force's officers.
The commission is releasing an interim report today that documents findings uncovered part-way through its investigation into racial profiling by the force.
The report says black people are grossly overrepresented in cases where Toronto police use force that results in serious injury or death.
The commission says black people make up only 8.8 per cent of Toronto's population, but were involved in 70 per cent of fatal police shootings between Jan. 1, 2013 and June 30, 2017.
It says during that time, black people were also disproportionately represented in everything from Toronto police use-of-force investigations, sexual assault complaints filed against city officers, and inappropriate or unjustified searches and charges.
The commission says comparisons to data from a decade earlier shows discrimination toward black residents hasn't improved over the years and is calling on the force to acknowledge and address the problem.
More to come...