Black Lives Matter protestors interrupt city council

By News Staff

Black Lives Matter protestors made their voices heard in Toronto city council on Friday.

Dozens of protestors filled council chambers calling for an overhaul of the province’s Special Investigations Unit.

Black Lives Matter protestors at city hall, Apr. 1, 2016. CITYNEWS

The protest happened on the day Councillors Mike Layton, Kristyn Wong-Tam and Gord Perks brought forth a motion asking for council to request a provincial review of police services in Toronto and of the SIU.

Minutes after council unanimously passed the motion asking the province to review policing and the SIU, focusing on anti-racism, protestors began to chant “Black lives they matter here!”

Black Lives Matter protest at city council, Apr. 1, 2016. CITYNEWS

After being escorted by security out of council chambers, the protestors stopped outside Mayor John Tory’s office to ask him to come to tent city, which has been set up for the last eleven days outside Toronto police headquarters, and speak with them about the matter at hand.

Tory said he will gladly talk with Black Lives Matter representatives, but he wants to do it in private.

“I just think there’s a degree of privacy and respect that we’re entitled to, notwithstanding that we’re in public life,” said Tory.

The group is also calling for the names of officers involved in Andrew Loku’s shooting to be released.

Last month the SIU deemed that police used ‘justifiable force’ in the July 2015 shooting.

The SIU investigation found that two officers encountered Loku in a third floor hallway of an apartment at 502 Gilbert Avenue around midnight on July 5, 2015. He was armed with a hammer.

On Thursday, Black Lives Matter protestors lead a vigil outside Premier Kathleen Wynne’s home in remembrance of Loku.

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