Discrimination complaint against Peel’s police board moves forward after members continue to ignore anti-Black racism

Members of the Peel Police Services Board and its executive director have repeatedly shown they are unwilling to heed the concerns of the region’s diverse community: from refusing to form an advisory committee to address anti-Black racism, despite the urging of community members; to ignoring a report on the shooting of a Black resident; to refusing to acknowledge whether officers will face any discipline for racist behaviour that led to charges being tossed by the courts. 

It has many residents convinced Board members, and the force they are responsible for governing, are still unwilling to address systemic anti-Black racism. 

An extensive audit completed six years ago found entrenched denial of discrimination, despite all the obvious evidence, was widespread and went all the way to the senior ranks of the force. 

Many former deputy chiefs and the chief at the time are now gone, and there were encouraging steps taken in 2020 when the force signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ontario Human Rights Commission to address systemic anti-Black racism. 

The partnership led to a recent report that came with 91 recommendations to improve the force and its governance. 

The resulting change has been glacial, and Peel Police officers are still using force against Black residents at a disproportionate rate. Many residents believe little has changed. 

Now, an outsider has stepped in. 

Robin Browne, an Ottawa resident, advocate for Black communities across Ontario and founder of 613 819 Black Hub, filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) against the Peel Police Services Board, claiming he was discriminated against because of his race when the decision was made to block him from delegating to the board.

The series of events that triggered the complaint began in June of 2023. 

Browne registered to speak at the board’s June 23rd meeting that year. Ahead of his presentation, Len Carby, the board’s newest member, and the first Black man to hold the position, immediately declared a conflict of interest. No reasons were given to explain the conflict. 

What followed was a confusing back and forth between Browne and board chair Nando Iannicca. 

Attempting to deliver his delegation virtually, where he wanted to question the board’s commitment to addressing anti-Black racism, Browne was repeatedly cut off by Iannicca anytime he mentioned Carby’s name. 

After the first mention, Iannicca jumped in, demanding he keep his statements directed toward the topic of his delegation.

“This is all leading to that,” Browne stated, before explaining that Carby’s appointment caught his attention for two reasons.

“Firstly, because Mr. Carby is a community leader with an exemplary record—”

Browne was again cut off by Iannicca who repeated his demand to keep his comments to the subject of the delegation.

Clearly confused, Browne appeared to jump ahead in his planned remarks and attempted to start again.

“Okay, let me start by asking you a question then, that I suspect Len will ask you a lot, why are you spending so much time addressing the reinstatement of Peel’s School Officer Resource Program and high-end car theft, and so little time addressing anti-Black racism, when that clearly doesn’t fulfill your obligations under your MOU with the Ontario Human Rights Commission?”

“Okay, I’ll answer that,” Iannicca began. “You’re not here to speak on that…I will give you one last opportunity, what do you want to talk to us about, about what you told us you intended to talk about?”

Iannicca is a former Mississauga councillor, he was never elected to his role as Peel Regional chair by the public and sits on the police board by virtue of holding the position at the Region. He has no previous experience in policing and other than serving as a councillor since 1988, has virtually no work experience in the private sector other than two years spent as an investment advisor.

His lack of experience is common among Peel Police Board members, who are either appointed by the province or regional councillors after putting their names forward as citizens, or are members of regional council: Alan Boughton works in the trailer leasing industry, Sumeeta Kohli has worked in marketing, the mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown, a career politician, holds one spot, Mississauga and Peel Councillor Matt Mahoney, whose mother once held his council seat, is also on the board, and Omar Khan is described as a construction industry entrepreneur. Len Carby, the member Browne tried to highlight in his delegation, is described as a community leader.

While delegations are meant to serve as an opportunity for residents to share their thoughts and concerns, and not to be a question and answer session, it’s unclear why Iannicca immediately dismissed Browne’s questions which were directly related to the topic he wanted to delegate on. 

After a final back and forth with Iannicca, Browne gave up. 

He accused Peel’s police board of being even worse to speak to than his local board in Ottawa, and signed off.

Robin Browne attempting to deliver his delegation to the Peel Police Board in June 2023. Chair Nando Iannicca interrupted him several times, before Browne gave up and left the meeting.

Following his departure, the board continued with the business of the day. No further explanation was given about the tense interaction, or why Carby’s name triggered such an obstructive response by Iannicca. 

The reason for Carby’s conflict, and potentially Browne’s icy reception before the Board, is an ongoing legal entanglement between the two in small claims court. The issue dates back to 2021 while Browne was working with the Federation of Black Canadians (FBC). Carby is a co-founder of the group. Browne is currently suing both Carby and the other founder of the organization, Richard Picart, for libel. Carby and Picart are countersuing Browne.

In 2019, Browne was working with the federal government and took a temporary work assignment with FBC. Soon after, he says members of the organization's steering committee began departing, alleging dysfunction and the inability of group members to work together. Browne claims when he tried to address these issues with leadership, he was sidelined by Carby and Picart who claimed he threatened physical violence against a colleague. Browne denies the claim. 

A trial for the case began on April 15.

In September 2023, Browne tried again to delegate to the Peel Police Board. 

Robert Serpe, the Board’s executive director responded, stating that because of the ongoing legal matter with Carby, his request to speak before the board was denied. 

“It would be inappropriate for the Board to hear deputations from individuals or groups when matters are before the courts,” Serpe wrote at the time. 

Serpe has no legal background and no experience in policing or previous experience running a government office. He was a communications staffer for former Brampton mayor Susan Fennell, who used to sit on the board, and Serpe was given the job as its executive director shortly after he left Fennell’s office. 

Browne explained that his delegation had nothing to do with the ongoing lawsuit with Carby. 

Serpe referred Browne to Section 14.3 of the Board’s Procedures Policy which states that following a deputation request “the Executive Director, in consultation with the Chair, will determine if the individual or group will be heard”. The policy notes these decisions are judged on whether the requests are related to the “role and responsibilities of police services boards and provided the Board has jurisdiction over the subject matter” and that “the right to appear (is) not to be unreasonably withheld.”

Serpe responded to Browne that, “In consultation with legal counsel, the presence of a pending matter before the courts constitutes a valid justification for rejecting a deputation request.” Serpe’s email to Browne was shared with The Pointer. 

Nowhere in the policy does it state that a legal matter can serve as a blanket reason to disqualify someone from speaking to the board on any given topic.

Serpe did not respond to a request for comment.

Browne argues blocking him from speaking on any matter not only violates the Board’s mandate set within its policies to “foster open dialogue and community engagement”, but is a violation of his Charter rights to freedom of expression.

“I’m disappointed with the Board’s decision, particularly the elected officials on the Board who are tacitly supporting this through their silence”, Browne wrote in a press release in 2023. “They all represent regions with large Black populations so they should be doing things that are pro Black not anti-Black.”

Since filing his complaint in October 2023, the Board has been slow to respond to his complaint. 

As part of the evidence in his lawsuit with Carby, Browne obtained an email from Serpe, sent to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission in response to a complaint from Browne against the board. In the email to board members, Serpe states Browne “has a history of being very litigious and filing frivolous claims”. 

The Board missed an initial deadline to respond to his complaint. It was only after prodding from the HRTO because they had missed the deadline to respond to Browne’s complaint, that the Peel Police Services Board retained a lawyer and notified the tribunal it would reply. 

During the upcoming mediation phase scheduled for July, Browne says he intends to continue the advocacy efforts he tried to pursue by delegating to the board. 

As part of any agreement to settle his complaint, Browne intends to push for further accountability of the board and Peel Police.

“The systemic change I want…is for the board to actually force the police to set targets to reduce their disproportionate use of force against Black people,” he says. 

If the police board does not agree to this request, Browne says he intends to have the matter proceed to a hearing, which could allow evidence to come forward into the public domain.

Browne’s group, 613 819 Blackhub, along with five other community groups, are currently suing the Ottawa Police Services Board in small claims court for the restrictions it has placed on delegations. That claim will go to trial on May 20.

In 2023, the Ottawa police board introduced new measures to limit public delegations to one hour total during their meetings, and made new requirements for all delegates to submit their remarks verbatim, before presenting. 

“Since they brought in the restrictions the number of delegations has dropped way off, many months I’m the only one delegating because I’m still jumping through all the hoops,” Browne says.

The Peel Police Services Board has a history of ignoring widespread concerns among community members. 

After the Peel police shooting of Ejaz Choudry—a video of which spread widely on social media drawing harsh criticism of the force—community members called for solutions to address the killing of mentally ill residents. Police board members were flooded with almost 100 letters sent by residents advocating for reform and a more holistic approach to policing. Some specifically criticized the introduction of body-worn cameras, fearing the move would distract from the broader need to transform police departments in close partnership with other agencies that can focus on better service delivery to deal with “upstream” issues such as mental health and acute mental health crises. 

Along with the clear implications of what historic carding data illustrated, recent use of force statistics show that Peel’s Black communities continue to be disproportionately impacted by negative interactions with police. 

Members of Peel’s Black communities previously requested the board form an anti-Black advisory panel to help educate board members about how Black residents are impacted by police. 

In 2021, despite the recommendation of an expert hired by Peel’s Police Board, it refused to listen to him regarding steps to eliminate systemic anti-Black racism within the force, including the creation of a committee with specific oversight responsibilities. 

Board members followed the recommendation of Serpe, who has no authority over policy decisions, and is supposed to focus only on the bureaucratic administration of the board.

Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, a University of Toronto sociology professor who has done extensive research on the intersection of race, crime and criminal justice, was ignored. After Serpe claimed the specific committee the expert endorsed was not needed because “diversity” work would be done in other ways, the professor responded.

“It is African-Canadians, Black Canadians, who are particularly overrepresented and have particular needs, not only within policing, but in society more generally. When the issues facing Black people are subsumed under diversity, which includes sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, because those two things are distinct, then those concerns do often get lost,” he advised the police board members.

They followed the recommendations of Serpe, a career administrative bureaucrat with no experience in policing or background in research on discrimination or Black community interactions with police, instead of professor Owusu-Bempah, who has three degrees including a masters and doctorate from the University of Toronto, holds “Affiliate Scientist status at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health” and has authored dozens of research papers, book chapters and articles on everything from “Justice Statistics by Race” to “Police Stop and Search Practices in Canada”. 

Browne says that advocates like himself are increasingly turning to the judicial system for help in effecting real change within policing. He’s created his own shirt with the acronym, BLM across the front–Black Legal Militia. 

Robin Browne has begun using judicial and quasi-judicial systems to support advocacy efforts for Black communities across Ontario.

(Robin Browne)

“Black folks need justice, and it’s not just Black it’s everyone who is being oppressed,” he says. “We need to use the legal, and quasi-legal system like the Human Rights Tribunal to force these organizations to change because decades of reform here and reform there, especially with the police, has proven that they don’t change. The reforms are performative and designed to give the illusion of change, but fundamentally, nothing is.”

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