UPDATE: HRTO orders Peel Police Services Board to pay $35,000 to 6-year-old Black girl restrained and handcuffed at her public school

JKB v. Regional Municipality of Peel Police Services Board, 2020 HRTO 1040

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) awarded JKB, a Black girl, $30,000 for the injury to her dignity, feelings and self-respect under the Human Rights Code and a further $5,000 for psychological and trauma counselling. The HRTO found that JKB suffered the discriminatory treatment as a six (6) year old in 2016 when Peel Police officers, attending at her school after a call from the school authorities, handcuffed her wrists and ankles and kept her restrained for almost half an hour.

The HRTO heard evidence from JKB’s mother about the impact of this discriminatory treatment had on her daughter. The HRTO also took into consideration JKB’s extreme vulnerability and the Peel Police officers’ conduct, which it found to be “shocking” and “punitive.” The HRTO found that JKB suffered serious impacts from the discrimination, including becoming fearful of police, enduring teasing from her school peers, and having feelings of humiliation, shame and guilt resulting from the incident.

The HRTO also found that JKB suffered harm in experiencing anti-Black racism and that it was alarming that she would experience anti-Black racism at such a young age. The HRTO also noted the ongoing harm to JKB and that the full impact of this discrimination is would affect her into the future.

The HRTO did not order any public interest remedies requested by JKB, including the remedies of race-based data collection, crisis-intervention, and de-escalation training. In October 2020, the Peel Police Board entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), setting out detailed proposals for comprehensive systemic changes to the Peel Police Services’ policies, procedures, and protocols, including the way in which police services are delivered to children under the age of twelve (12) and how police respond to calls from schools for police assistance.

The HRTO was satisfied, on the evidence presented at the hearing, that the Peel Police Board’s MOU with the OHRC to develop and implement these institutional remedies to address systemic racism in Peel policing did not warrant any further systemic remedies being ordered.

The full decision can be found here: JKB v. Regional Municipality of Peel Police Services Board, 2020 HRTO 1040