NDP’s Berns-McGown: Soleiman Faqiri’s death makes it clear how desperately systemic reform is needed

TORONTO — Rima Berns-McGown, NDP MPP for Beaches—East York, released the following statement following a Toronto rally in support of Soleiman Faqiri and his family:
“The circumstances of Soleiman Faqiri’s death, and the decision to lay no charges in his death, make it crystal clear how desperately we need to reform Ontario’s justice system. At every turn, Soleiman Faqiri and his family deserved so much better from our institutions than they received.
Mr. Faqiri deserved compassion and access to mental health supports at a time of crisis. Instead, he was diverted into a system that failed to assess his mental health, viewed him as a threat and put him in solitary confinement. He was put in the custody of guards that pepper-sprayed, restrained and brutally beat him. And after his tragic death in 2016, Ontario’s justice system has continued to utterly fail his family.
Most recently, the OPP declined to press charges against the guards involved in Mr. Faqiri’s death. Mr. Faqiri’s family and community members have called into question the deeply insulting rationale that since multiple guards beat Soleiman Faqiri while he was shackled to the ground with a hood over his head, it was impossible to know which person dealt the fatal blow.
Like Mr. Faqiri’s family, and racialized, Black and Indigenous communities across the province, I will be closely monitoring the mandatory coroner’s inquest into Soleiman Faqiri’s death. I am calling on the Ford government, and in particular, the Attorney General to do the same.
I am also calling on the Ford government to finally step up and listen to the calls of racialized, Black and Indigenous communities across the province, and commit to overhauling law enforcement and oversight in this province – especially when it comes to mental health crisis response. Without a government willing to seriously address systemic racism, racialized, Black and Indigenous people in Ontario will continue to be disproportionately targeted, hurt and killed by systems that should be keeping them and all Ontarians, safe.”