in Featured World News Toronto’s First Black Female Police Superintendent Demoted After Cheating to Get Black Officers Promoted
Guest Post by Miriam Judith
During a police act tribunal decision on Wednesday, Toronto Police Service’s first black female superintendent was handed a two-year demotion after she admitted to helping black cops get promotions by cheating.
Last year, Clarke pleaded guilty to seven counts of professional misconduct after she admitted to playing a primary role in the 2021 scandal, where she leaked confidential exam questions to six black officers so that they could be awarded promotions that she believes they wouldn’t otherwise be capable of earning, due to, you guessed it, ‘racism’.
“I felt at the time that (the six officers) did not have a fair chance in this process and my own history and experience of racial inequity compounded this feeling,” Clarke wrote in a police report, referring to the cheating as “a desperate effort to level the playing field.”
The former president of the Jamaican Canadian Association, Audrey Campbell, made comments in support of Clarke, likening the corrupt officer to a “freedom fighter”.
“You can talk about fairness of systems. You can talk about the rules. No substantive change has ever been accomplished by following the rules that the system made…” “One man’s criminal is another man’s freedom fighter,” she said, minimizing the severity of Clarke’s corrupt actions.
Tribunal adjudicator Robin McElary-Downer ultimately gave Clarke a slap on the wrist by ruling that she only be demoted for two-years and have to reapply for her position as superintendent while simultaneously stating that Clarke showed a lack of honesty and integrity – values that are essential to the role she once held.
“Honesty and integrity are non-negotiable character traits of a police officer. Superintendent Clarke’s actions demonstrated both were absent.” She said