The late and fearless civil rights activist Dudley Laws inspired many in the community for leading dozens of protests and marches to end the many police shootings of Black men in Toronto and surrounding cities.
Laws, who died this week in 2011 at the age of 77, gained prominence for heading dozens, if not hundreds, of anti-police brutality marches and rallies during the 1970s and 1980s to highlight young Black men who were being shot by Toronto and other GTA officers, most who were acquitted of all charges at trial.
A life-long activist, Laws left Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica, for Britain in 1955 and soon began helping members of the West Indian community, including the Somerleyton and Geneva Road Association in Brixton.
He moved to Toronto in 1965 and joined the Universal African Improvement Association (UAIA), an organization founded by Marcus Mosiah Garvey in 1914 that helped fellow Blacks.
Frustrated and concerned by the escalating number of police slayings of Black youths then and still now, he and other community leaders vowed to act.
In 1988, Laws, along with the late lawyer Charles Roach, activist Sherona Hall and teacher Lennox Farrell co-founded the Black Action Defense Committee (BADC) following the police shooting of Lester Donaldson. The organization is now marking its 30-years of service.
I have been covering the anti-police protests as a reporter since the 1980s and it seems that little has changed today to improve relations between police and the Black community in Toronto.
Donaldson, 44, of Jamaica, was diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia when killed while brandishing a small paring knife in August 1988 by Const. David Deviney, who was charged with manslaughter and not surprisingly acquitted at trial.
The acquittal led to protests and demonstrations by members of the Black community, who wanted Deviney jailed for murder. Front page photos in Toronto newspapers the next day showed a smiling Deviney celebrating his acquittal by smoking a large cigar and surrounded by his police friends.
Donaldson was the latest in a series of shootings of young Black men in Toronto by what appeared to be ‘trigger happy cops.’ In December that same year Michael Wade Lawson, 17, was shot by Peel police in the back of the head and killed in an incident relating to a stolen car.
Once again, the two officers charged in that shooting were acquitted of all charges in 1992.
The police slayings continued with Faraz Suleman, 16, who was slain by a York Regional Police officer in a suspected car jacking. The charge against the officer was thrown out in court.
Next to die was Hugh Dawson, 31, who was killed by a Toronto officer in March 1997 during an alleged drug takedown. The officer was acquitted. Tony Romagnuolo, 44, was buried next. He was shot after getting in a dispute with a York officer. The officer was acquitted of all charges.
The deaths by police continued with Darren Varley in 1999. Otto Vass, 55, in August 2000; Eric Osawe, 26, in September 2010 and Mehrdad Bayrami in 2012 and so on. Today more than three dozen Black men have since been killed by police in the GTA; including the high-profile July 2015 slaying of Andrew Loku: who was shot by a Toronto cop, who was not charged.
Laws due to his anti-police activism in the early 1990s was targeted by police who charged him with alien smuggling; which was overturned on appeal.
Still BADC activists, aided by Black Lives Matter Toronto, soldier on in countless marches and protests in a 30-year fight to end the police shooting and killing of Black men.
The demonstrations led to the creation of Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) in 1990 to probe police shootings or killing of civilians and sexual assault allegations.
BADC will be celebrating its first 30-years of service with the Dudley Laws Scholarship Fundraising Brunch being held on May 6 at the Jamaican Canadian Centre (JCA). Long-standing supporters Kingsley Gilliam, Nancy Simms and Oliver Rose will be honoured for their many years of activism.
Tickets are $55 and available at the JCA.
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