A Dangerous Isolation

Canadian police are under scrutiny … still. Several public inquiries are underway to investigate complaints of police brutality and unlawful confinement during a mass protest. Initial investigations found no wrongdoing. Investigators cannot identify officers involved. No police witnesses come forward. Civilian witnesses bring out video evidence. After a reinvestigation, an officer is charged.

A young black woman is strip searched, her clothes are cut off her back and she is left topless in a cell in full view of officers for hours.

Several deaths occur across Canada as a result of police use of a new “non-lethal” weapon. Inquiries are held. Some officers are found to have used excessive force. Some rules change.

These are current news stories, but they are not new. They have all happened before.

Twenty-five years after John Sewell wrote Police: Urban Policing in Canada, police accountability is still more promise than reality...