For families of people killed by police, forced to confront an unfamiliar and often frustrating police oversight system, reactions to Thursday’s announcement that major changes are coming ranged from optimism to disappointment.
“I think that the government and attorney general’s office really took a good look at what needed to happen, and that they are implementing what they know they can,” said Karyn Greenwood-Graham, whose son, Trevor Graham, was fatally shot by a Waterloo Regional Police Service officer in 2007.
“We are very much credited. I’m feeling very good about it (but) I know there’s always more,” said Greenwood-Graham, who founded the group Affected Families of Police Homicide
Yvonne Alexander, whose brother, Anthony Divers, was shot and killed by a Hamilton police officer last year, said the legislation gives her little comfort, as she saw nothing being proposed in terms of police interactions with people in crisis.