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Families who have lost a loved one at the hands of police assembled at Queens Park for two reasons today. First, to remember the people who’ve died. And secondly. to present a petition to the legislature.

As Cindy Csordas reports, the hope is the government will enact some recommended changes with the hope to save lives.

The pain was felt at a memorial honouring the dead. People here believe their loved ones were unjustly killed by police.

Steve Mesic was shot and killed by Hamilton police two years ago. Mesic never got to meet his unborn son. “Steve’s death has shaken the foundation of my family. Our life has changed dramatically in every way imaginable” says Steve’s widow Sharon Dorr.

The “Affected Families of Police Homicide” group presented a petition to the Ontario legislature. It suggests police should get random urine tests to check for drug use. The group also wants to see police equipped with other non-lethal weapons.

Norm Dorr would have been Steve Mesic’s father in law. “Pulling a revolver where there’s no going back. There’s no going back for the officer, there’s no going back for the person who’s the target of the bullets, there’s no going back for the families. It’s over, they’re shot, they’re dead.”

Jeffrey Reodica was killed by a police officer in Scarborough eleven years ago . “We have an eyewitness that says he hit my son in the head with his gun and then pushed him down and bang bang bang. He was shot four times” says his father Willie Reodica.

Families here say the number of people shot dead by police continues to grow and more often then not they are cleared of their actions by the Special Investigations Unit.

But NDP MPP Jagmeet Singh says the last Ombudsman’s report showed that the government created barriers that prevent the SIU from probing deaths properly.