There is a call for the end of the Toronto Police practice of carding, and it comes from a group of 46 prominent Toronto citizens.

The influential voices include former Toronto mayors, Barbara Hall and David Crombie, along with former provincial government minister Alvin Curling and retired chief justice Roy McMurtry.

The group is called Concerned Citizens to End Carding and is scheduled to hold a news conference this morning at Toronto City Hall. A statement from the members says carding has led many in the city “to distrust and disrespect our police.”  It says “anger, hurt and unrest have replaced any benefits police may derive from this practice.”

Mayor John Tory’s office announced late yesterday that he’s asked the leaders of the group to meet with him, police board chair Alok Mukherjee and Police Chief Mark Saunders (by phone from the U.S.) before the news conference to air their views and ask questions and have all of the relevant facts before them.

Between 2008 and 2013, Toronto police stopped, questioned and documented more than a million individuals in mostly non-criminal encounters.  A series of Toronto Star reports have shown black people, and to a lesser extent, people with brown skin, are more likely than white people to be subjected to carding.