Toronto Police Chief William Blair Takes Top Honours in Diversity Leadership

T.O. TOP COP GETS TOP DIVERSITY AWARD TODAY

Chief Bill Blair speaks at a Toronto Diversity business conference

The Diversity Business Network recognized Toronto Police Chief William Blair as the 2012 Canadian Diversity Leadership Award winner at a Diversity conference in Toronto today. The award recognizes an individual or organization who is a ‘Champion’ for diversity and has also achieved success in implementation of diversity strategies to achieve organizational goals.
As one of the most multicultural cities in the world, Toronto’s Chief Blair has built an organization reflective of the cities motto “Diversity Our Strength”. His accomplishments and success in making diversity a core cornerstone is a beacon to other Canadian organizations in both the public and private sector.
“Chief Blair has set a benchmark for diversity achievement as Chief of Police of Toronto,” states Courtney Betty, President and Founder of DBN. “The service and commitment infused within the Toronto Police Services in cultural diversity and representation reflects Blair’s overall contribution in building a police force that will grow with this world-class City.”
Stephen Frost, Head of Diversity for London 2012 Olympic Games presented the award to Chief Blair at the Canadian Supplier Diversity Conference 2012. The conference waa held at the Allstream Center at Exhibition Place on Friday, March 23. The Canadian Supplier Diversity Conference 2012 brought together international and local diversity experts to examine the economic contribution of diversity to the Canadian economy.
William Blair was appointed Chief of the Toronto Police Service on April 26, 2005. The Toronto Police Service employs over 5500 police officers and 2200 civilian employees, the largest municipal police service in Canada and one of the largest in North America. The City of Toronto is a vibrant city covering 636 square kilometres with a diverse population of more than 2,600,000 people.
In the areas of promoting diversity in the workplace and commitment to building positive and functional relationships with the diverse communities of Toronto, Chief Blair has an outstanding record of achievement that continues to be the foundation for organizational success in reducing violence and crime across the city and helping communities to mobilize their resources to improve the quality of life in their neighbourhood.

Former House Speaker Alvin Curly talks about the good work that Chief Blair is doing in terms of diversity hiring in Toronto. He noted that both he and the chief are from Scarborough. Standing behind Alvin is Diversity Business Network's Courtney Betty.

The following are some of Chief Blair’s ground-breaking accomplishments and programs in the areas of Diversity and Human Rights that have taken form as a result of the Chief’s strategic vision for the Toronto Police Service:

• The assignment of Deputy Chief Keith Forde to Human Resources Command in 2005 to direct the implementation of strategies and goals contained within two successive Toronto Police Service Business Plans (spanning 6 years), to recruit, retain and promote members so that the service is more reflective of the diversity of the community at the civilian, front-line uniform, and the leadership levels of the organization. As a result of the above efforts, by 2011 and continuing to the present, the representation of diversity in the Toronto Police Service is at a historical high with 20% of service members being from visible minority groups, 1% Aboriginals, and 29% female.
• The proportional representation of these groups within the uniform ranks has increased dramatically over the past 10 years, in large part due to employment strategies implemented under Chief Blair. While uniform strength increased 11% overall during that period, the proportion of female officers increased by 32%, the proportion of Aboriginal officers by 38%, and the proportion of visible minorities by 86%. This included an overall 100% increase in the proportion of these members in the supervisory and leadership ranks.

About The Diversity Business Network

Left to right: Diversity Business Network's Coutney Betty, Head of Diversity  for the London Olympics Stephen Frost, and Chief Bill Blair holding his Diversity Award

DBN provides tools, strategies and systems for corporations to become world-class leaders and benefactors of supplier diversity. Our mission is to make diversity in the supply chain a cornerstone of corporate Canada and to establish the standard by which supplier diversity effectiveness is measured within business and government.
.Visit http://www.diversitybusinessnetwork.com/conference to learn more.

London Olympic's diversity expert Stephen Frost