Malaria drug touted by Trump fails to prevent COVID-19 in high profile study

(Reuters) - The malaria drug promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a treatment for COVID-19 was ineffective in preventing infection in people exposed to the coronavirus, according to a widely anticipated clinical trial released on Wednesday.

The new trial found no serious side effects or heart problems from use of hydroxychloroquine.

Vocal support from Trump kicked off a heated debate and raised expectations for the decades-old drug that could be a cheap and widely available tool in fighting the pandemic that has infected more than 6.4 million people and killed over 382,000 worldwide

In the first major study comparing hydroxychloroquine to a placebo to gauge its effect against the new coronavirus, University of Minnesota researchers tested 821 people who had recently been exposed to the virus or lived in a high-risk household.

It found 11.8% of subjects given hydroxychloroquine developed symptoms compatible with COVID-19, compared with 14.3%who got a placebo. That difference was not statistically significant, meaning the drug was no better than placebo.

“Our data is pretty clear that for post exposure, this does not really work,” said Dr. David Boulware, the trial’s lead researcher and an infectious disease physician at the University of Minnesota.
Several trials of the drug have been stopped over concerns about its safety for treating COVID-19 that were raised by health regulators and previous less rigorous studies.

“I think both sides - one side who is saying ‘this is a dangerous drug’ and the other side that says ‘this works’ - neither is correct,” said Boulware.

The results were also published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In March, Trump said hydroxychloroquine used in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin had “a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine” with little evidence to back up that claim. He later said he took the drugs preventively after two people who worked at the White House were diagnosed with COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

Hydroxychloroquine - which has anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties - inhibited the virus in laboratory experiments. But these type of human trials are needed to definitively demonstrate whether the drug’s benefits, if any, outweigh the risks when compared with a placebo.

Proponents of the drug as a COVID-19 treatment argue it may need to be administered at an earlier stage in the disease to be effective. Others have suggested that it needs to be used in combination with the mineral zinc, which can help boost the immune system.

More than 20% of the trial subjects also took zinc, which had no significant effect.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cautioned in late April against the use of hydroxychloroquine in patients with heart disease due to an increased risk of dangerous cardiac rhythm problems.

Boulware said his trial had fewer participants than initially planned because of difficulty enrolling new subjects after the FDA’s warning.

On Tuesday, the British medical journal the Lancet said it had concerns about data behind an influential article that found hydroxychloroquine increased the risk of death in COVID-19 patients, a conclusion that undercut scientific interest in the medicine.

Boulware was one of the signatories of an open letter from doctors that called attention to potential problems with that study.

Some European governments banned hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients, and U.S. hospitals have significantly cut back its use.


In the University of Minnesota trial, 40% of the those who took hydroxychloroquine reported less serious side effects like nausea and abdominal discomfort versus 17% in the placebo group.

Results of another University of Minnesota placebo-controlled trial testing hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment rather than to prevent infection is expected soon.

Hong Kong legislature starts voting on China national anthem bill

IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES THIS WOULD BE CALLED WHAT IT IS A BLASPHEMY LAW!

Breaking with their usual policy of political neutrality, HSBC and Standard Chartered banks gave their backing to the new law on Hong Kong on Wednesday.

THEY ARE CHINA BACKED BANKS
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong’s Legislative Council started voting on a controversial bill on Thursday that would make disrespecting China’s national anthem a criminal offence, amid heightened fears over Beijing’s tightening grip on the city.

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The voting came just as people in Hong Kong were set to commemorate the bloody 1989 crackdown by Chinese troops in and around Tiananmen Square by lighting candles across the city later in the day. Police have banned the annual vigil in which the crackdown has been usually marked, citing the coronavirus outbreak.

A final vote on the bill is expected later on Thursday.

The bill could punish those who insult the anthem with up to three years jail and/or fines of up to HK$50,000 ($6,450). It states that “all individuals and organisations” should respect and dignify the national anthem and play it and sing it on “appropriate occasions”.
Tensions in the Chinese-ruled city have ramped up after Beijing gave the green light last week to move ahead with national security laws to tackle secession, subversion and foreign interference.

The move was quickly condemned by the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada, as well as international human rights groups and some business groups.

The Shooting Of Black Americans Started Long Before The Looting

Donald Trump threatened George Floyd protesters on Twitter, but their lives have always been at risk.

By Taryn Finley, HuffPost USBLACK VOICES
05/29/2020 

KEREM YUCEL VIA GETTY IMAGES

A protester wearing a face mask holds up his hands during a May 27 demonstration outside Minneapolis' 3rd Police Precinct over the police killing of George Floyd.

I’m mad as hell.

When protests turned into civil unrest in Minneapolis as folks demanded the arrest of the four officers responsible for George Floyd’s death, I knew to prepare for the same cycle we saw in Ferguson and Baltimore just a few years ago.

Another Black life is taken by the hands of those who are supposed to protect and serve us. The cops are fired, but not arrested despite video evidence that they’re responsible for someone’s death. Folks, mostly Black people, protest. Police bring out the riot squad and throw tear gas at the protesters. Tired of a system in which their lives are always at stake, Black protesters turn to civil unrest.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise when you see folks running out of Target — which funded surveillance cameras around downtown Minneapolis in a move that some called predatory — with carts full of merchandise. Twitterusersallege that same Target closed its doors on them to prevent protesters from buying supplies. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct station was set ablaze. And there’s nothing novel about political analysts and folks on social media expressing more anger about destroyed property than a lost life. Protesters aren’t criminals; they’re tired of waiting for change in a system that continues to deny them justice. And this country’s leaders continue to fail them.

Early Friday, President Donald Trump sent a tweet that used racist language and threatened those engaged in civil unrest.

“These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen,” he tweeted as protesters cheered and watched the police station burn down. “Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020


Shortly after, Twitter noted on the post that the president’s tweet violated the platform’s rules about “glorifying violence” but that the tweet would remain accessible in consideration of the public interest. Hours later, the White House Twitter account doubled down with a tweet repeating Trump’s earlier words.

With his phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” Trump was evoking the words of former Miami Police Chief Walter Headley. As racial tension grew in Miami in the 1960s, Headley vowed to control Black protesters and crack down on “hoodlums.”

“We don’t mind being accused of police brutality,” he said in December 1967. “They haven’t seen anything yet.” By the time civil unrest erupted and lasted for three days in August 1968, three people died at the hands of police, 18 were wounded, and 222 were arrested, according to The Washington Post.

But what Trump gets blatantly wrong is that the “shooting” — or state-sanctioned killing in general — was going on long before the incidents at Target. Black people’s lives have long been threatened by white people with more privilege and power who still manage to see us as a threat. That holds true for Floyd, who was killed by Derek Chauvin, an officer with 18 prior complaints filed against him before he suffocated the 46-year-old unarmed Black man.

Same goes for Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Philando Castile, Rekia Boyd, Michael Brown, Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Walter Scott, Terence Crutcher, Eric Garner, Samuel Dubose and so many other names we may never know. And as I write this, I learn we have to add to this list Tony McDade, who was shot and killed by police in Tallahassee, Florida, this week.

This is hell.

What Trump said should surprise no one. This is the man who placed a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the death of the Central Park Five (now the Exonerated Five). What was shocking was the fact that a president who has been notoriously quiet when it comes to Black Americans dying at the hands of cops finally said something. He was quiet after the death of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, with his press secretary at the time calling it “a local matter.”

When he finally does address a case, he calls Black protesters “thugs,” a term often weaponized against Black people to make them out to be a threat, while actively threatening their lives with the use of more state-sanctioned violence. (A totally different tone than the one he used on May 1 when addressing a heavily armed group protesting stay-at-home orders meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19.)

It is unfair to deny those who built this country the freedom of knowing for sure they will make it home safe and then call them crazy when they burn it down. I would have been more content had Trump stuck with the 10 unmoving words he uttered at a press conference on Thursday: “I feel very, very badly. That’s a very shocking sight.”

In a 1966 interview, Martin Luther King Jr. was asked about some Black activists’ departure from the peaceful approach he advocated to address racial injustice.

“The cry of Black power is at bottom a reaction to the reluctance of white power to make the kind of changes necessary to make justice a reality for the Negro,” he said. In that interview, he called a riot “the language of the unheard.”

Civil unrest is happening because Black people in this country are fed up with being killed. We’re tired of watching videos of our brothers and sisters die at the hands of police. We’re tired of having to deal with racism — especially amid a pandemic that disproportionately affects Black people — while some white people aren’t even aware of the mourning taking place. And it’s utterly exhausting to live under oppressive structures that expect us to stand by idly as we watch people who look like us be killed because some cop (or civilian) sees them as a thug.

We’re mad as hell. And if you care about Black people, you should be, too.

The Racist Origins Of Trump’s ‘When The Looting Starts, The Shooting Starts’ Quote

A line originally used by an aggressive Miami police chief prompted Twitter to issue another content warning for the president's tweets.

By Sara Boboltz, HuffPost US

As protests intensified in Minneapolis following the death of a Black man pinned down by a white police officer, President Donald Trump issued a naked threat in a pair of tweets.

“I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis,” he wrote Thursday night. “Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right.”

He continued in a second tweet: “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”

Twitter posted a content warning over the latter half of the president’s message, warning users that it violated the platform’s rules about glorifying violence but was still available out of public interest. (The same label was applied to an identical tweet from the official White House account.) It was the second time this week that the company labeled Trump’s tweets with some kind of content warning.

I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right.....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020

....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020

Later Friday, Trump attempted to backpedal with a nonsensical series of tweets, claiming that his racist call to violence was misunderstood (a reading that would require ignoring the immediate context of the threat, in which the president invoked the military to assert “control” of the situation).

“It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement. It’s very simple, nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media,” he tweeted.

Trump did not coin the phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The line is half a century old, and combative Miami Police Chief Walter Headley Jr. originally used it during the height of civil rights protests in the 1960s.

Headley led the Florida city’s law enforcement from 1948 until his sudden death in 1968. He attracted national attention and condemnation in December 1967, when he threatened to step up already severe policing practices that included use of tear gas and an aggressive stop-and-frisk policy.

“This is war,” Headley told reporters, according to a United Press International article from the time. He described his problem with “young hoodlums, from 15 to 21, who have taken advantage of the civil rights campaign.”

“We don’t mind being accused of police brutality,” Headley said. “They haven’t seen anything yet.”

The police chief then explained that he maintained order by threatening violence: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

His comments angered civil rights leaders at the time. Martin Davies, a spokesman for the NAACP, told UPI: “This man has no place in a position of public trust. If necessary, we will get a lawsuit to keep him from enforcing this type of arbitrary action.”

Headley’s news conference so alarmed residents that he was put before the Miami City Commission to explain himself, according to his New York Times obituary. He claimed his remarks had been partly misinterpreted, and the publication said he “held his ground on enforcement and gained the commission’s support.” The city council and its mayor were all white men at the time.
We don’t mind being accused of police brutality. They haven’t seen anything yet.former Miami Police Chief Walter Headley Jr., in the 1960s


It wasn’t the first time Headley would publicly use the “looting” phrase, either. Facing criticism in August 1968 for remaining on vacation while riots broke out in Liberty City, a majority-Black neighborhood in Miami, Headley said his department could handle the situation without him. “They know what to do. When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he said, according to the Times obituary.

His officers killed three people. Eighteen were wounded.

Headley’s defenders said he transformed the department, which Miami Herald columnist Charles Whited had once described as being “comprised of more beef than brains.” But it became known for brawny tactics.

In the Headley era, two cops strip-searched a Black teenager suspected of bringing a knife into a pool hall and dangled him by his feet over a bridge crossing the Miami River, according to a Washington Post article about the era’s unrest.

At the time, local leaders claimed Headley was effective, but his authoritarian policies increased distrust between the Black community and law enforcement ― a long trend that has since led to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Protesters have demonstrated across the country since George Floyd, a Black man, died Monday after a white police officer restrained him by pinning his neck to the ground with a knee. Video of the incident shows Floyd pleading for his life and saying he could not breathe.

Some of the protesters turned violent on Wednesday night, setting fire to several Minneapolis businesses. They breached a city police station on Thursday, setting it ablaze and smashing windows as officers retreated.

Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, called for the violence to end earlier this week.

“I want everybody to be peaceful right now, but people are torn and hurt because they’re tired of seeing Black men die,” he told CNN. “Constantly, over and over again

Elizabeth May Wants Canada To Accept U.S. Asylum Seekers Now That Country ‘No Longer Safe’

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is also calling on Trudeau to denounce the U.S. president’s actions.

By Ryan Maloney

 
CP Green Party parliamentary leader Elizabeth May and

 U.S. President Donald Trump are shown in a composite

 of images from The Canadian Press.

Elizabeth May says Canada must welcome asylum seekers wanting to flee the United States because it isn’t a secure country for racialized communities under the president’s leadership.

“We must not turn them away because Donald Trump has made the United States no longer safe,” the federal Green parliamentary leader told reporters in Ottawa Wednesday.

May called the press conference to address the protests against anti-Black racism that have erupted after last week’s police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis. The situation has been made more dire by Trump’s incendiary words and actions, she said.

She noted Trump’s threat to use military action on protesters, his tweets that were flagged by Twitter as glorifying violence, and the National Guard’s use of tear gas on peaceful demonstrators in Washington, D.C. this week to clear a path for a presidential photo-op.

May reiterated her party’s position that it is time for the Liberal government to suspend Canada’s Safe Third Country agreement with the U.S.

“It’s clear that if you’re Muslim, if you’re Black, if you’re Latina, if you’re Indigenous, the United States is not a safe country,” she said.

According to the 2004 pact, Canada and the U.S. recognize each other as safe places for refugee claimants to seek protection. Both countries reject most asylum claims made at land border crossings on the basis that people should instead seek refuge in the first country they arrive in.

However, in what has been called a loophole, the Safe Third Country agreement only applies at official border points. Thousands of people have crossed into Canada from the U.S. irregularly over several years in order to make claims.

In a move that outraged refugee advocates, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in March that asylum seekers who try to come into Canada irregularly from the U.S. would be sent back as part of a “reciprocal” arrangement between the countries amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Canada has closed the border to non-essential U.S. visitors until at least June 21.

At the time, May also blasted the government for closing the border to those seeking refuge during the pandemic. “If border officials are allowed to turn away asylum seekers at unauthorized points of entry, we might as well just build a wall across the entire country. Whatever happened to our ‘welcoming’ country?” she said in a press release.

May said Wednesday that as long as those seeking asylum adhere to Canada’s COVID-19 safety protocols, they shouldn’t be turned away.

“We’ve been making this point since Trump came to office with his anti-Muslim ban,” she said, referring to the president’s travel ban targeting Muslim-majority nations. “That you couldn’t be a Muslim in the United States and feel safe. It was no longer a Safe Third Country.”

But May said she would not criticize Trudeau or Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland for refusing to call out Trump by name over the unrest south of the border.
It’s clear that if you’re Muslim, if you’re Black, if you’re Latina, if you’re Indigenous, the United States is not a safe country.Green MP Elizabeth May


The prime minister stood silent for 21 seconds Tuesday when asked by a reporter to weigh in on Trump’s behaviour. When he eventually answered, Trudeau did not reference the U.S. president by name, but said Canadians were watching what is happening in the U.S. with “horror and consternation.”

May said she wants to give Trudeau and Freeland “the space to navigate” how they deal with the Trump White House, saying they have “different jobs” and roles than she does.

“I just knew I could not stay silent as the president of the United States urged violence and in coded language has been giving… oxygen, for years now, to white supremacists,” she said.

The Green parliamentary leader is also calling for an inquiry to determine to what extent white supremacist forces could be infiltrating police and the military in Canada.

“This is a very dangerous situation. And I do think those of us in other countries should speak out,” she said. “But I won’t criticize the prime minister or the deputy prime minister because the nature of what they have to do in negotiating keeping the border closed for safety, right now, for COVID-19.”
Singh: PM must speak out on Trump’s actions

In contrast, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters in Ottawa Wednesday that Trudeau needs to speak out forcefully against Trump. Canada cannot be a “passive bystander” as Trump inflames hatred and fuels racism, he said.

“He is acting in a way which is going to put people’s lives at risk,” Singh said of the president. “And it is wrong and it needs to be called out.

“It’s difficult to stand up to bullies. It’s difficult to call out hate. It’s hard to do but it must be done. And it takes courage and everyone has to do their part.”

The NDP leader, who a day earlier in the House of Commons suggested Trudeau was more interested in “pretty words” than concrete action on racial injustice, said the Liberal government should also move to end racially motivated policing tactics and address the over-representation of visible minorities and Indigenous people in prisons

Singh, the first racialized leader of a major federal party and a politician who has been open about the bigotry he has faced as a turbaned Sikh, recounted how some bystanders would say nothing when he was bullied as a child.

“Silence didn’t stop the blows that I felt. Silence didn’t stop the painful words,” he said.

Trudeau should condemn Trump’s conduct clearly, even if it complicates Canada-U.S. relations, he suggested.

“There are times where we have to be strategic, and there are times where we just have to stand up for what is right,” he said. “And this is one of those times where we have to stand up for what is right.”

With files from The Canadian Press

Trudeau Took A Long Pause Before Answering Question About Trump’s Military Action

He was careful to not mention the U.S. president by name.

By Ryan Maloney
Zi-Ann Lum

06/02/2020

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood silent for more than 20 seconds at his Ottawa press briefing Tuesday after he was asked to comment on Donald Trump’s threat to deploy the military against anti-Black racism protesters.

When he finally answered, Trudeau was careful not to reference the U.S. president by name. Instead, he focused on racial injustice in Canada.

The question came one day after the National Guard used tear gas on peaceful demonstrators in Washington, D.C. to clear a path for a Trump photo-op. Demonstrations and acts of violence have erupted across the U.S. since last week’s police killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, in Minneapolis. Floyd died after a white police officer pinned him to the ground with a knee on his neck for eight minutes.

CBC News reporter Tom Parry noted Trudeau’s past reluctance to weigh in on Trump’s words and actions. “If you don’t want to comment, what message do you think you’re sending?” Parry asked.

After the lengthy delay that played out like a technical glitch on TV, Trudeau said Canadians are watching what is happening in the U.S. with “horror and consternation.”
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI VIA GETTY IMAGESU.S. President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside of St John's Episcopal church across Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. on June 1, 2020.
“It is a time to pull people together, but it is a time to listen. It is a time to learn what injustices continue, despite progress, over years and decades,” he said.

“But it is a time for us as Canadians to recognize that we too have our challenges, that Black Canadians and racialized Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day.”

Echoing sentiments he’s already expressed publicly, Trudeau said there is systemic discrimination in this country because people of colour are treated differently than other Canadians.

“It is something that many of us don’t see but it is something that is a lived reality for racialized Canadians,” he said. “We need to see that, not just as a government and take action, but we need to see that as Canadians.”

Pressed again on why he is so averse to comment directly on Trump’s actions, Trudeau said his job is to stand up for Canadians, their values and interests.
ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES

A protestor is being arrested by Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police officers during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after being pinned down by a white police officer last week.

“That is what I have done from the very beginning, that is what I will continue to do,” he said. “Canadians need a government that will be there for them, that will support them, and that will move us forward in the right direction. And I will do that.”

Another reporter pressed Trudeau on a 2017 UN report on anti-Black racism in Canada that recommended the federal government apologize for the country’s history of slavery and offer reparations.

The prime minister would not say if his government will issue a formal apology. Instead, Trudeau said his government has worked “very, very closely” with the Black community to respond to its priorities. The NDP is currently pushing the government to collect more race-based data to help shape policy decisions, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

“What we are seeing in the United States and what Canadians are speaking about here in Canada underlines the fact that we need to act,” he said.
Party leaders make statements saying racism is real in Canada

Trudeau and other federal leaders later spoke in the House of Commons Tuesday about Canada’s own issues with racial discrimination. The prime minister said horrific reports of police violence against Black men and women in the U.S. are not “elsewhere problems.”

“As a country, we are not concerned bystanders simply watching what is happening next door. We are part of it,” he said.

Trudeau also addressed his own past incidents of blackface, calling them “serious” mistakes.

“We need to be allies in the fight against discrimination. We need to listen, we need to learn, and we need to work hard to fix, to figure out how we can be part of the solution on fixing things.”

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said racism isn’t a problem exclusive to the U.S. He said he hopes the fallout from Floyd’s death has sparked conversations about racism.

Canada has had its own “dark episodes” in the past, Scheer said, noting a “troubling spike” in the number of racist anti-Asian incidents during the pandemic.

“In a peaceful and free country like Canada, there’s absolutely no room for intolerance, racism and extremism of any kind.” The words were nearly identical to a campaign-style speech he delivered last year.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism is real, and members of those communities have been killed at the hands of police in Canada. He referenced the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto last week as a latest example. The woman’s family has questioned the role of officers in her death after she fell from a 24th-floor balcony with police on the scene.
GRAHAM HUGHES/CP

A anti-police brutality protester hold a sign during a demonstration calling for justice in the death of George Floyd and victims of police brutality in Montreal on May 31, 2020.

“How many more people need to die before there is action? How many more speeches need to be made, how many more protests need to happen before something is done.”

Singh said people are done with “pretty speeches from people in power that could do something about it right now if they wanted to.” He added that he doesn’t have the answers and that “we’re going to have to come up with those solutions together.”
Bloc leader, Quebec premier deny systemic racism exists

Earlier, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet told reporters in Ottawa he doesn’t believe the Canadian government, the Quebec government, or cities in his province are racist in “any way shape or form.”

Looking back at history, some can argue that the Canadian government has been racist, he said. The Bloc leader urged citizens and elected officials to feel “sorrow and sincere friendship toward the Black people of all North America.”

Blanchet urged people to express sadness “peacefully” over Floyd’s death rather than “feeding the fire,” referencing protests against police brutality organized around the world.
GRAHAM HUGHES/CP

Protesters run from police during a demonstration calling for justice in the death of George Floyd and victims of police brutality in Montreal on May 31, 2020.

His comments pick up on Quebec Premier François Legault’s comments Monday, claiming systemic racism doesn’t exist in his province.

Legault said he found the nature of Floyd’s death “shocking,” and expressed solidarity with protesters who took to the streets of Montreal over the week.

But he downplayed the severity of racism in Quebec, despite his government’s push to pass a discriminatory law last year to ban visible religious symbols that disproportionately affects women from minority groups.

Although there are racist incidents in the province, Legault said, the level of discrimination at home isn’t comparable to what happens in the U.S.

“I think there is some discrimination in Quebec, but there’s no systemic discrimination. There’s no system in Quebec of discrimination,” he said. “And it’s a very, very small minority of the people that are doing some discrimination.”

Defunding The Police Will Save Black And Indigenous Lives In Canada

If we truly want to effect change that could stop police killings of Black people, we need to have this conversation.

• By Sandy Hudson, Special To HuffPost

GRAHAM HUGHES/CANADIAN PRESS

Police push back protesters during a demonstration on May 31, 2020 calling for justice in the death of George Floyd and victims of police brutality in Montreal.

As I write, demonstrations are raging across North America in protest of continued police violence against Black people. The police killings of Black people have sparked resistance uprisings, from Whitehorse to Miami and seemingly everywhere in between.

Demonstrators are calling for justice for Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto, who fell to her death while police were in her apartment, D’Andre Campbell in Brampton, Ont., George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and countless others who have faced anti-Black police brutality.

If we truly want to effect change that could stop police killings of Black people, we must have a conversation about defunding the police.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/DARRYL DYCK

Thousands of people gather for a peaceful demonstration in support of George Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet and protest against racism, injustice and police brutality, in Vancouver on May 31, 2020.

Perhaps you are thinking to yourself, “What about violent crime?”

I hear you. And I want you to consider this simple fact: police do not prevent violence. What we need in the event of violent crime is a service that will effectively respond to it, stop it from happening if it is ongoing, and investigate the circumstances surrounding it.

This is a conversation about safety, and the mechanism through which we as a society will provide safety for one another. 

Policing is ill-equipped to suit these needs.

When victims are not the right kinds of victims, police have utterly failed. When the queer community in Toronto told police there was a serial killer targeting racialized queer men in the Church Street village, the police openly denied there was a serial killer and did not take the threat seriously. This allowed serial killer Bruce MacArthur to get away with murdering at least eight men over at least seven years.

In British Columbia, police failed to apprehend serial killer Robert Pickton for over 20 years,  and this failure meant that Pickton was able to murder 49 women. The majority of these women were Indigenous, and police routinely refuse to take the disappearance of Indigenous women seriously. When Toronto police attended to the suspicious death of Black trans woman Sumaya Dalmar in 2015, they closed the investigation without ruling it a homicide or releasing a cause of death after social media outcry.

Defunding the police can free up funding that we can reinvest in services that provide real safety.

Black communities interact with police regularly because we live in neighbourhoods police target. We are experts in the ways that police can brutalize and inflict violence upon us. Their presence is no assurance of safety in Black communities. This is often true for Indigenous communities and communities living in poverty as well.

There are other communities who do not interact with police regularly. Wealthier, non-Black, non-Indigenous, privileged communities tend to feel safe because they have a rarely used option to call the police when they feel their safety is threatened. But, they are generally not interacting with police; their communities are not policed in the same way, and they are not targeted for criminalization.

Alternatives to policing

Instead of relying on police, we could rely on well-trained social workers, sociologists, forensic scientists, doctors, researchers and other well-trained individuals to fulfill our needs when violent crimes take place. In the event that intervention is required while a violent crime is ongoing, a service that provides expert specialized rapid response does not need to be connected to an institution of policing that fails in every other respect. Such a specific tactical service does not require the billions of dollars we waste in ineffective policing from year to year.

Defunding the police can free up funding that we can reinvest in services that provide real safety for both kinds of communities. The communities that are constantly exposed to police violence should not be deprived of effective safety and security services simply because more privileged communities feel safer when calling the police is an option.

We can rethink the way that we create safety in our communities by creating alternative services that truly create safety and security for everyone. Black Lives Matter - Toronto has been advocating for this since our inception, alongside our global counterparts and other Black justice organizations.

Right now, the only emergency option available for most people who are experiencing mental distress is to call 911. Both D’Andre Campbell and Regis Korchinski-Paquet died while the police were attending to calls about their mental distress.

Couldn’t we create a new emergency service that connects us with unarmed, mental health emergency service workers specifically trained to provide the health and social care required in crisis situations? It’s happening already, with front-line programs active and working in conjunction with police in parts of the U.K. and in states such as Oregon, where the CAHOOTS program has been active since 1989.  

STEVE RUSSELL VIA GETTY IMAGES

Activists and protesters rally in front of Toronto police headquarters on May 30, 2020 after the death of 29-year-old Regis Korchinski-Paquet.

We can also decriminalize activities that are currently against the law, and reinvest the money we save on unnecessary policing and put it into programs supporting the security of communities who need it. The decriminalization of cannabis and our response to the opioid crisis show how a public-health approach to drug use is more effective than policing to support people who need help.

As another example, some public transportation systems use police to ensure that each passenger pays their fare. If we defund the police, we could reinvest our savings to help make public transit free. Fare evasion could no longer be a crime, and the policing of passengers would be unnecessary.

The minor services police provide — adherence to bylaw infractions, traffic services, attending to noise complaints — can be enforced by civilian services. In Ontario in 2015, Marc Ekamba-Boekwa was shot at 19 times and killed by Peel police after a noise complaint was made in his Mississauga, Ont. public-housing complex. Do we really need police attending to noise complaints with lethal force?

The very purpose of the police has always been antithetical to the safety of Black and Indigenous people.

In several large cities across Canada, policing accounts for some of the largest municipal budget expenditures. Let’s defund the police and create budgets that truly reflect our priorities. Perhaps then we could fund guaranteed access to housing, increased adult support for children in schools, and other services that create true safety and security.

Each year, police budgets generally increase. But rather than increased safety, all we see is increased militarization and criminalization. Police have been caught infringing on our privacy rights by implementing surveillance techniques that can access our smartphones. They have used the funding they receive to purchase stealth emergency vehicles, and to purchase increasingly militarized devices to harm civilians, including assault-style weaponry and sound cannons in the case of the Toronto Police Service.

Why do we need these services? The police have utterly failed to deliver on their evergreen promise to create safety by being “tough on crime.”

But they have continued their original purpose of harming us. The institution of modern policing was created in France as a mechanism to protect the property of wealthy men — including enslaved people. The police acted as slave catchers to kidnap Black people who had liberated themselves from slaveowners.

In Canada, this mandate was expanded when the RCMP was created in 1873 to “free up land” of Indigenous people to make way for white settlement.