Wishing you all a very happy New Year. The year 2022 was filled with difficulties and disappointments, yet most of our community agencies thrived despite the challenges posed by their circumstances.

What does 2023 have in store for us, the Black community? A few weeks ago, the Mayor of Toronto, John Tory, announced that a significant amount of additional funding would be allocated to the Toronto Police Service to “keep our streets safer.” While police services are necessary for a well-functioning society, critics say that this increase in the police budget will rob the already underserved communities of funding to support other critical social services.

This increase in the Toronto Police’s budget, which is aimed at expanding the size of the police force (and not improving the quality of police training), will almost certainly exacerbate the issue of over-policing, particularly of racialized communities. While the city of Toronto boasts that it spends incredible amounts on anti-Black racism efforts, it will be spending 100 times that amount on the same police force that arbitrarily criminalizes and harasses Black and other racialized people.

Government officials can no longer ignore the evidence that improving public safety goes far beyond increasing the presence of the police. Indeed, we must continue to advocate for the redistribution of resources to community agencies, like all of those that fall under the ACSDC, that promote the betterment of society at its fundamental level.