Assemblée législative de l'Ontario

Report continued from volume A.

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Private Members’ Public Business

Community school liaison officer programs

Ms. Jess Dixon: I move that, in the opinion of this House, the Ministry of Education should encourage and support all publicly funded school boards to work in partnership with police services by maintaining community school liaison officer programs to support relevant programming, building positive relationships between students, officers and educators, and ensuring schools remain safe and healthy learning environments.

The Acting Speaker (M^me Lucille Collard): Pursuant to standing order 100, the member has 12 minutes for her presentation.

Ms. Jess Dixon: Four years ago, I watched in frustration and dismay as the Waterloo region school board removed its school resource officer—commonly referred to as SRO—program. While perhaps well intended, the decision was made by a small group of trustees largely influenced by the voices of a minority of community members who called for the program’s removal. The process ignored broader democratic principles by failing to consult the student body at large, the police service or other key stakeholders. This decision overlooked the opportunity to address deeper challenges tied to trust, equity and community safety. This motion is, of course, non-binding, and the SRO program is by no means a cure-all. But it is a step towards a future where every student in Ontario feels supported and protected and where our schools can serve as places of safety and opportunity.

Before discussing the benefits of SRO programs, it’s essential to acknowledge and validate the deeply felt concerns that underpinned their removal in some jurisdictions. For many Black and Indigenous students and their families, interactions with police were not always positive or protective. These experiences were rooted in a history where racism and violence at the hands of law enforcement left lasting scars on individuals and communities. This reality cannot be ignored or dismissed.

Further, research—including findings from the Peel SRO program study—highlighted the uneven impacts that SRO programs had across some communities. Indeed, for some students, the presence of a uniformed officer in schools was a source of fear or intimidation rather than support. We must also recognize that there were instances where school boards or police services failed to invest meaningfully in these programs, with officers who were not adequately trained or committed to the role.

However, my belief is that these realities highlight even more clearly the need for reform, not abandonment. Simply removing SRO programs may shield some students from discomfort in the short term, but it does nothing to address the underlying issues of fear, distrust or inequity. Instead, we must confront these challenges directly by reimagining the SRO program as a tool for change, a means to build relationships, foster understanding and, ultimately, repair broken trust between police and communities they serve.

Police are part of the framework of our society. While we all hope for a world free of crime, violence and exploitation, the current reality is that police play an essential role in maintaining law and order, responding to emergencies and protecting vulnerable populations. By simply removing police from schools, we risk perpetuating a status quo in which some communities—particularly those already marginalized—are left without access to the protection and justice they too deserve.

Instead of eliminating the presence of police in schools, we must focus on building trust and relationships. This starts with programs like SROs, where positive interactions with officers can serve as a bridge not just for children but for their families and communities. When a child from a household where police are distrusted comes home and is able to share a story of kindness or support from an officer at school, it plants a seed. It challenges the narrative of fear and opens the door to dialogue and future trust.

SROs are far more than uniformed police. At their best, they are mentors, protectors and connectors, uniquely positioned to intervene in situations that put children at risk, from organized crime to human trafficking. Ontario leads the country in cases of human trafficking, with some victims recruited directly from schools. This stark reality underscores the critical importance of early intervention.

As Janet Campbell, president and CEO of the Joy Smith Foundation, has stated, “Prevention of human trafficking begins with education and trusted relationships.” Equipped with specialized training and an intimate knowledge of their communities, SROs can often be the first to notice signs of grooming, coercion or exploitation. Their ability to recognize and act on these warning signs can mean a difference between saving a child or watching that child fall prey.

Advocacy bodies like the Organization for National Gang Information and Awareness echo these sentiments, highlighting the importance of SROs as critical players in safeguarding vulnerable children. They can connect at-risk students with resources, collaborate with educators and social workers and help address the root causes of harm to break cycles of exploitation.

Beyond external threats, SROs play a role in preventing and responding to school violence. Their presence provides both a greater perception of safety to students and a proactive opportunity to address underlying issues before they escalate.

One of the most critical long-term benefits of SRO programs is the opportunity to diversify police services. Ideally, the makeup of our police forces should reflect the diversity of the communities that they serve. Currently, this is not the case in many jurisdictions. To change this, we can start with children. When students see officers who may look like them, officers who may share their background, their culture or their language, it sends a powerful message: This is a career that is open to you. Utilizing diverse SRO officers not only helps build trust in the short term, but also expands the pool of young people who can see policing as a viable and meaningful path in their own future. By fostering these relationships, we can encourage a new generation of police officers who understand the communities they serve because they come from those communities. This isn’t just about representation. It is about creating a police force that is ever more empathetic, effective and connected.

Why am I bringing this motion? Because I believe it is necessary. The actions of some school boards highlight a pressing need for intervention. Take, for instance, the case of a uniformed officer, a parent, who was told they could not attend their child’s school simply because they were wearing their uniform. This decision, made under the guise of protecting students from potential discomfort, disregarded both the officer’s role as a parent and the opportunity to use this moment as a teachable interaction. Instead of fostering dialogue, the board chose exclusion, signalling a broader issue of decisions driven more by ideology than what is best for students.

Such examples underscore the need to intervene in the administration of SRO programs by school boards. These programs should be guided by clear evidence-based mandates that prioritize equity, safety and trust. As the Peel study emphasized, when implemented with proper oversight and accountability, these programs can yield significant benefits, including reductions in bullying and conflict while improving overall perceptions of safety within schools. Every student in Ontario deserves equitable access to the benefits that come from a well-implemented SRO program and that access should not depend on the decisions of individual boards.

The success of any program depends on clear direction and defined boundaries and an SRO program is no exception. If legislation were to follow this motion, it would ideally establish clear mandates and guidelines that outline the role of SROs. These guidelines would focus on relationship-building and community engagement that could include specialized training in cultural competency, de-escalation and recognizing signs of vulnerability in students who may be targeted for exploitation or criminal grooming. Officers should also receive training that helps them understand their roles as mentors and collaborators, not disciplinarians.

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Equally important is delineating what SROs are not responsible for. SROs are not replacements for educators, for support workers or social service providers, nor should they ever be involved in routine discipline or responding to issues that are strictly behavioural. Their role should remain focused on protection, prevention and fostering connections within the school community.

The strength of the school resource officer program lies in the individuals who embody its purpose. In the gallery today is London Police Service officer Chris Golder, along with his daughter Erika and his wife Keiko. I first met Chris last year when his younger daughter, Arisa, served as a legislative page. Chris was a dedicated and passionate SRO with the London Police Service until the program was abruptly ended. As an SRO, Chris worked tirelessly to create safe spaces for students to share their struggles and seek guidance. Chris recalls moments when students who had nowhere else to turn approached him with concerns ranging from their own safety to personal challenges. His compassionate listening and consistent presence inspired trust, leaving a lasting impression on the school community.

Another powerful example comes from Scott Mickle, another former SRO from London. Scott recalled how his presence in schools allowed him to build strong, genuine connections with students, including many who are often overlooked or at risk of disengagement. One particularly moving example he shared involved a student who had been resistant to authority figures and struggled with trust. Over time, through patience and consistent outreach, Scott earned that student’s confidence. By graduation, the student actually openly credited Scott for helping him believe in himself and pursue a positive path forward.

These stories are not isolated. Across Ontario, SROs have provided mentorship and support to countless students, often going above and beyond their formal responsibilities to ensure the well-being of the children they serve. These examples remind us that SROs are not just about policing; they are a bridge between students, families and communities, paving the way for more equitable and understanding society.

In bringing this motion forward, I am making a clear statement: I refuse to accept a society where fear and distrust of police are treated as inevitable. Every child deserves equitable access to safety, protection and justice, regardless of their background, their identity or where they live. This motion is about more than just reinstating SRO programs. It’s about reimagining them as tools for building trust, fostering equity and ensuring that all children feel supported and protected. It is a privilege to stand here as an MPP and advocate not only for the children and families in my riding but for communities across Ontario.

I urge my fellow members to support this motion. Together, we can create a framework that empowers students, builds bridges between community and police and paves the way for a safer, more equitable Ontario.

The Acting Speaker (M^me Lucille Collard): Further debate?

Ms. Chandra Pasma: I want to thank the member for Kitchener South–Hespeler for taking the issue of school violence and student safety seriously, which is something that unfortunately we have not seen from the Minister of Education to date. But this motion is the wrong approach to addressing the very serious issue of school violence.

By failing to support our children in school every day, the government is setting them up to fail, and it is not fair then to turn around and punish our children for failing. Instead of responding to violence after it has happened, we should be taking action to prevent it from occurring in the first place, which means properly funding and resourcing our schools and investing in health care, mental health care, therapy, employment and recreation opportunities for youth and respite care for families, so that our whole society is supporting our kids and our schools are not the backdrop for the lack of supports for families and youth in our communities. Because what we know, Speaker, is that an unsupported child is a frustrated child.

We are not talking here about bad kids; we are talking about kids who are dysregulated or who are frustrated because they are not receiving the support that they need with their education and with their health care and mental health care needs. I’ve spoken in my role as education critic to many parents who are also frustrated because they see that their child isn’t getting the support that they need, and they worry that their child is being labelled a problem child instead of actually receiving the support that they deserve from the system. So we are not talking about bad children here who need to be punished; we are talking about children with so much potential, who deserve to be fully supported by our education system, because—do not mistake me—the issue of school violence is incredibly serious in our schools. It is at unprecedented levels and it is not wrong to use the word “crisis.”

The Auditor General’s report, which was released just this morning, said that violent incidents in our school boards have increased 114% since 2017, and that doesn’t even represent all violence because we know that teachers and education workers aren’t bothering to even submit reports on violent incidents at schools anymore because they say nothing happens; nothing comes of submitting a report. Violence is so routine as well, that it takes too much time to take the time to submit a report that nothing is going to happen in response to.

So the statistics actually under-represent how serious the problem of violence is, but we know that elementary teachers with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario—77% of them have personally witnessed or experienced violence against an educator. Seventy-five per cent of OSSTF members in our secondary schools say that incidents of violence have increased since they started working in our school system. In just one school board alone, the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, there were 4,000 reported incidents of violence in 2022-23—one school board in the entire province. We know from WSIB claims that teachers and education workers are second only to police and firefighters in filing workplace injury claims.

We have an incredibly serious problem with violence in our schools, but we also need to listen to the people who are in our schools every day about what is causing the problem of violence and how we fix it. Again, we want to fix it by preventing violence from occurring in the first place, not by responding only after it’s happened and certainly not by punishing kids who just lashed out because they were frustrated.

What we know is that under this government, per-student funding in our education system has gone down $1,500 after accounting for inflation. That means we have much larger class sizes and we have far fewer education workers, such as educational assistants and child and youth workers, per capita at a time when our children have vastly greater needs following the pandemic, following the disruptions to their learning and also due to much larger mental health challenges, which we see in the larger population as well.

But the government is only spending 22 cents per day per student on mental health. We know that 91% of principals say they need more support than what they’re getting on mental health. Only one in 10 schools has regularly scheduled access to a mental health professional, half have no access at all, and yet the amount of funding the government is putting towards mental health has actually gone down. Last year, it was 27 cents per student per day. So we’ve lost five cents per student per day in the middle of a mental health crisis for our children.

We also have a serious special education deficit. Boards are spending tens of millions of dollars more than what they are getting from this government, and that’s for a scenario in which parents of kids with disabilities and learning exceptionalities are sending their children off to school every morning, not even knowing if they will be safe, let alone whether they will learn anything. We saw one example of this earlier this year—and very tragically—and another example that nearly ended tragically with a student with autism who eloped from his school. His school didn’t know where he was for 35 minutes. He was barefoot in a snowstorm, soaking wet, in the middle of a four-lane road. That was so close to ending tragically. What that student needed was not a police officer in his school; he needed the one-on-one support from an EA that he was supposed to have under his safety plan, but the school didn’t have the resources that they needed in order to make that safety plan a reality instead of something that existed on paper only.

In light of this crisis in our schools, the government is spending a mere 14 cents per day per student on student safety and well-being, and their only solution in the budget was to spend money on vape detectors and security cameras. So now, we can record the violence as it’s taking place, but we can’t do anything to prevent it.

The MPP for Sudbury, the NDP’s labour critic, and I sat down with teachers, education workers and principals, the people who are actually working in our schools every day who know what’s causing the violence, to talk about what they actually need, what would actually prevent the violence, and what we heard is the number one thing that they need is more funding for more staff. They need additional qualified staff in our schools, including mental health professionals, education assistants, child and youth workers and special-needs assistants.

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They also need funding for comprehensive training for all of the educators and the administrators who work in our schools—training that addresses not only how to de-escalate or intervene when conflict is already taking place, but training on how to help children regulate their nervous systems, training on how to intervene before something reaches a crisis point.

They have also asked for a sector-specific regulation for education under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. That is something easy that the government could do today if they wanted to. They’ve asked for a permanent tripartite provincial health and safety working group to review and adapt current policies regarding workplace violence, and a single province-wide online reporting system for violent incidents. This is something we could all do today if we wanted to. We could have an emergency plan to end school violence instead of talking about how we can punish kids for acting out when they don’t receive the support that they need.

I also want to thank the member for Kitchener South–Hespeler for acknowledging that the relationship between police and vulnerable communities is not always healthy, and that students and parents from vulnerable communities do not feel safe with police in their schools. They have told us that. They have told us that very clearly, and there is work to be done on that relationship.

I certainly support that work being done, but in my riding of Ottawa West–Nepean, the Ottawa Police Service is doing that work in the community. They sponsor Cuts for Kids, where police officers bring in barbers to give kids back-to-school haircuts, and they give amazing haircuts, let me tell you. There was also a basketball tournament.

There are many opportunities for interaction, for community-building and community engagement that can take place outside of our schools. We do not need to make our children or their communities feel unsafe in school to rebuild this relationship. We have so many opportunities and I would encourage the member to think far more broadly than schools in addressing this issue of safety.

The Acting Speaker (M^me Lucille Collard): Further debate? The Associate Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response.

Hon. Trevor Jones: Good evening, Speaker, thank you. I apologize ahead of time for my voice; it’s a bit vulnerable right now.

I’m so honoured to rise in support of the motion submitted by the member for Kitchener South–Hespeler. This member is a passionate champion for justice and education and I’m so proud to be her colleague.

In Ontario, every police recruit hired to serve with a municipal police agency or the OPP must first attend the Ontario Police College and successfully complete the basic constable training program. This program consists of a wide range of courses including federal and provincial law, traffic investigations, human rights, diversity, leadership, ethics and mental health for first responders. There are also a number of scenario-based and applied courses including physical wellness, community safety, defensive tactics, use of force, de-escalation techniques, firearms and police vehicle operations. This program is viewed nationally and internationally in very high regard, in part because the instructor cadre is made up of long-serving, experienced officers who are subject matter experts.

Police services across Ontario enjoy a tremendous advantage over their counterparts by being able to deploy well-rounded, highly trained officers who are caring and deeply understand their roles and the safety and security needs of the communities they serve.

There are several core ideas in the basic constable training program that are derived directly from Sir Robert Peel, the founder of London’s Metropolitan Police and the person widely regarded as the father of modern policing. These concepts are meticulously woven into the fabric of several subjects and formal training modules for all recruits to consider, learn and apply.

At the heart of Peel’s philosophy are three core ideas:

(1) Any service’s goal must be to prevent crime before it happens. The work of a successful police agency in any community should be measured by low crime rates, not high arrest rates.

(2) The entire community must aspire to help stop and prevent crime, which can only be done if residents trust their police officers.

(3) Finally, police officers earn public support by respecting community principles. This can only be accomplished by hiring officers who reflect their community, who understand their community, who act with integrity to enforce the law impartially.

When Sir Robert Peel said that “the police are the public, and the public are the police,” he was referencing these very principles. Peel insisted that officers are a part of their community, and they’d better act like it.

The prosperity we enjoy in Ontario is in part directly related to the safety and security of our communities. To build trust, to demystify the work police officers perform and to break down cultural and socio-economic barriers, police services across North America undertook a series of reform initiatives in the early 1980s which we’ve come to know as community policing. Community policing, as we know, encouraged greater interaction between the police and the public through specialized partnerships delivered in public schools to discuss topics like values, influences, peers, bullying, drug and alcohol abuse, greater awareness of human trafficking, even bicycle and traffic safety.

The results were overwhelmingly positive. As uniformed police officers worked alongside teachers to deliver relevant programming, their roles in schools also grew. Many officers became peer mentors and volunteered their time to coach sports. School resource officers take great pride in their work, supporting educators by helping them instill accountability, social awareness and civic pride to the students they taught. Recalling my own experiences as an elementary and high school student from a diverse community where the majority of my colleagues were first-generation Canadians and children of immigrants, I witnessed first-hand the value, relevance and positive impact the police officers had on me and on students.

At some point in our lives, we will all intersect with a police officer. We could be involved in a motor vehicle collision or be issued a traffic citation. We could be a witness to a crime or the victim of one. Just think of the profound difference there would be in our mindset if either should happen and this was the first time that you had an interaction with an officer. Conversely, take someone who has had a positive frame of reference, through years of positive interaction with police officers in schools, in the communities, someone who sees an officer as a person—a person they know, a person who is part of their community, not separate from it.

Speaker, I believe that all of the resources our services have at their disposal are important, but most important is time. Time spent with the people they serve is a critical investment that pays real dividends in our community, and it builds trust. As a professional police officer myself, I took great pride in building meaningful professional relationships with teachers, administrators and students through delivering programming in elementary and high schools, and being a part of the fabric of that school community. The return on this small investment of my time made me a more effective police officer and gave me a better understanding of the challenges facing our young people. Just as Sir Robert Peel so aptly said, police are the public, and the public are the police.

For these reasons and many more, Speaker, I fully support this important motion.

The Acting Speaker (M^me Lucille Collard): Further debate?

MPP Jill Andrew: As a child and youth worker, teacher and equity adviser, I want to thank every adult in our schools who continues to give their level best to uplift our students and to work towards their social, emotional and academic success, despite chronic underfunding of education and understaffing by this Conservative government.

The government member has tabled a motion that, in effect, calls for the return of armed police officers into all of our Ontario public schools. I cannot support this problematic motion, as there is no evidence indicating that the presence of police in schools ends violence. But what evidence has shown is that police in schools can and has led to racial profiling, over-policing of predominantly Black students. Militarizing our students is not the answer to ending violence, and militarizing our schools as well is not the answer. Guns do not end violence. We need to be prioritizing violence prevention before the violence occurs.

In June 2022, the interim Toronto police chief, James Ramer, apologized to Black community members as race-based data realized and validated what many of us in the Black community had long known through experience: that there was and is anti-Black racism in the institution of policing and that Black folks are statistically more likely to be stopped, to receive use of force, assumed to be acting criminally, have a gun pointed at us or be killed in an encounter with police than our white counterparts.

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This isn’t about saying that all cops are bad. That would be ignorant. This is a critique of the policing institution and how its systems view Blackness and Black and brown bodies, which inevitably invades the belief systems of many officers, including even BIPOC officers. Many children, youth, parents, teachers, education workers and community-based advocates and organizations like Policing-Free Schools have spoken out across our province against police-in-schools programs. It’s how we got our SRO program abolished at the TDSB.

Studies from the Ontario College of Teachers, the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators have shown police presence in schools does not make the classroom safer, especially for many BIPOC students who have repeatedly reported feeling uncomfortable and intimidated by the police.

I welcome all MPPs to read the Ontario NDP document, End Police Violence, Invest in Black, Indigenous and Racialized Lives: An Ontario NDP Commitment to Action. That is how we solve violence before it occurs. Let’s invest in evidence-based supports in our schools, a better education funding formula, more education workers and mental health supports, and let’s also address the issues in community, like tackling housing, job and financial insecurity, student hunger and poverty that have a direct impact on how our schools function. Thank you.

The Acting Speaker (M^me Lucille Collard): Further debate?

Mr. David Smith: I rise today to lend my voice in support of the private member’s bill introduced by my esteemed colleague MPP Dixon, a bill that speaks directly to the fundamental importance of safety, education and community partnership.

The proposed motion encourages the Ministry of Education to actively support publicly funded school boards in collaborating with local police services. Its goal is to foster programs that nurture a positive relationship between students, officers and educators while upholding schools as safe and healthy learning environments.

As someone who has served as a trustee with the Toronto District School Board for over 12 years, I’ve seen first-hand the power of partnership in our education system. When educators, law enforcement and community come together, they create ecosystems of support that not only prioritize safety but also build trust, understanding and accountability.

The decision to implement the school resource officer program was never formally voted on by the elected officials of the Toronto District School Board. Instead, it was a policy decision made solely by the police chief of the Toronto police. This structure raised concerns of accountability as the program’s introduction and ongoing existence lacked direct oversight for some communities through their elected representatives. One of the disadvantages of this arrangement is that many students felt as though they were constantly being watched.

In my humble opinion, the process for reintroducing or continuing such a program should be revised. It would be more appropriate to have a decision like this come through the democratic process with the input and approval of elected officials who are accountable to the community. Bringing the SRO program back via this route would ensure that the voices of students, parents and the broader public are heard and considered, fostering greater transparency and trust in the implementation of school safety policies.

Programs like these provide more than just physical safety; they foster a sense of belonging, mutual respect and an opportunity for a student to see officers as mentors and allies. They also empower educators to focus on their primary role of teaching, secure in the knowledge that their school environments are equipped with the tools and resources to prevent conflict and promote well-being.

The challenges our students face today are complex and multi-faceted, ranging from cyberbullying, mental health issues and, unfortunately, instances of violence. Addressing these challenges requires a collaborative approach, and this motion lays the groundwork for such collaboration. Through this initiative, we can ensure that students not only excel academically but also develop into well-rounded individuals who feel supported by community and confident about their future. The benefits of these partnerships extend far beyond the classroom, fostering life skills and building a culture of shared responsibility.

The school resource officer program in Toronto, before it was phased out in 2020, provided several benefits and positive impacts in school. The SRO played a critical role in maintaining safety and security, helping to prevent crime and violence, such as theft, bullying and drug-related issues. Their presence allowed for quicker responses to potential incidents, creating a safer environment for both students and staff. Additionally, for both students and staff, the SRO helped build positive relationships between police officers and students, fostering trust and understanding, especially in communities with tense relationships with law enforcement. Through mentorship and education programs such as workshops on cyberbullying, substance abuse and conflict resolution—

The Acting Speaker (M^me Lucille Collard): The time has just gone while you were speaking, and I have to interrupt.

I’m going to go back to the member for Kitchener South–Hespeler for a two-minute reply.

Ms. Jess Dixon: Thank you to my colleagues who spoke to this motion today, especially the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington and the member from Scarborough Centre, who provided their incredibly valuable lived experience as a long-serving OPP officer and a Toronto District School Board trustee respectively. I also want to extend my deepest gratitude to the many dedicated school resource officers throughout Ontario, including, again, Officer Chris Golder, and to all of the officers who continue to work tirelessly in jurisdictions where the program remains intact. Their passion and commitment to building relationships, fostering trust and being part of building safer school communities are at the heart of what this motion speaks to recognize and strengthen.

This motion is not about turning back the clock; it’s about moving forward with clarity and with purpose. It acknowledges there have been legitimate concerns and failures in how some SRO programs were implemented. Still, it firmly believes that those challenges are no reason to abandon the idea, but rather a call to reimagine it as a tool for building equity, safety and connection. In supporting this motion, we are taking a meaningful step towards a province where children can feel safe, supported and understood, where the fear of police is met with an opportunity to build trust and encourage dialogue, and where every child, regardless of their background, can feel like they have the ability to turn to police for protection if needed.

I simply refuse to accept a society where fear and distrust of the police are treated as inevitable, unavoidable facts of life. Together, we can send a clear message that we are committed to addressing these challenges head-on, ensuring that no child or community in Ontario is left behind. Thank you.

The Acting Speaker (M^me Lucille Collard): The time provided for private members’ public business has expired.

Ms. Dixon has moved private member’s notice of motion number 145. Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry?

All those in favour of the motion will please say “aye.”

All those opposed will please say “nay.”

In my opinion, the ayes have it.

A recorded vote being required, it will be deferred until the next instance of deferred votes.

Vote deferred.

The Acting Speaker (M^me Lucille Collard): All matters relating to private members’ public business having been completed, this House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 9 a.m.

The House adjourned at 1840.