Here's what happened when demonstrators questioned this officer's commitment to her Black community

When Stacy Clarkeone of the highest ranking Black police officers in Canada was targeted at a recent protest, she triedturn the incident into an educational moment.

"What we achieved with the demonstrators that day was authentic relationship-building," Clarke said in an interview withCBC Toronto news anchor Dwight Drummond.

"They were in pain and rightfully so."

Clarke was targetedby demonstrators who were chanting at her specifically at a rally againstanti-Black racism,questioning her commitment to her Black community.

Toronto has seen multiple protestsand demonstrationsagainstracism and police brutality following the deaths ofRegis Korchinski-Paquet, a Toronto woman who fell to her death from her apartment balcony,and George Floyd, an unarmed black man who diedas he was pinned under the knee of a police officer in Minneapolis on May 25.

But Clarke, an inspector with the Toronto Police Service, said she didn't take the comments of the demonstratorspersonally, and in fact related to what they were saying.

"I recognized thatthey were chanting at myuniform and what myuniform represents," she said.

"I was emotional at some points because I was feeling a lot of the pain that the community was feeling."

That's why Clarke tried to use the moment as a learning experience for everyone involved including the white officers she commands by attempting to be "compassionate and empathetic" to the protesters.

"I need to figure out a way to make my uniformbridge the gap between what they're saying who I am and what the service represents."

You can watch the full interview between Clarke and Drummond in the media player above.