A rally in support of Kayla Borden will take place the same day Halifax Regional Police Chief Dan Kinsella is scheduled to testify at an appeal hearing into a complaint against members of the Halifax Regional Police.
The rally is being organized by Abolish the Police — Halifax/Kjipuktuk and will take place outside the hearing Thursday at 9:30am at the Best Western Plus Dartmouth at 15 Spectacle Lake Dr.
Borden filed a complaint after her car was pulled over in the middle of the night in July 2020. She was arrested by roughly a dozen police officers at a Dartmouth intersection after her car was mistaken for another car driven by a white man. That man was driving with no license plate, no headlights, and took off from police when they tried to pull him over in Halifax.
The hearing opened in December 2021 with testimony from Borden followed by testimony from several officers involved in her arrest.
The hearing was then adjourned for nearly a year until November 2022 when it heard testimony from more officers involved in the arrest, including constables Scott Martin and Jason Meisner, the two official arresting officers named officers in the complaint.
Kinsella is expected to be the last person to testify at the hearing.
Borden says her arrest was the result of systemic racism within the Halifax Regional Police. In November 2019, Kinsella issued a public apology to the Black community on behalf of the police department for the use of street checks.
Andrew Gough, a lawyer for the city and the police department, attempted to prevent Kinsella from having to testify prior to the hearing. He made repeated attempts at the hearing in November 2022.
