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Fantino
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| Toronto Police 2004 | More | and more
| Heisey | 2005: Revelation
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- Chief Julian Fantino speaks
at yesterday's tension-filled police services board meeting.
- Police union resists board
- Endorsements remain a hot
issue
- McIntosh claims violation
of rights
LINDA DIEBEL , STAFF REPORTER,
Jan. 23, 2004
City politicians are "playing
with a loaded gun" if they try to restrict the Toronto Police
Association from endorsing candidates at election time, says
union president Rick McIntosh.
His comments came yesterday
as the police services board, the department's civilian overseer,
sought to send the hot-button issue of the association's involvement
with partisan politics to the Ontario courts.
The board, under chair Alan
Heisey, dealt with several controversial issues at the meeting,
including the police budget, the drug squad scandal that has
shaken the force and, briefly, Julian Fantino's contract as chief.
In a statement to the board,
Heisey noted that Fantino's term ends in March, 2005, and "I
will not discuss personnel issues in public, and that's all I
have to say."
The Star reported this week
that Fantino wants to extend his five-year contract until 2007.
Yesterday, Fantino told reporters: "I am not going to get
into something I feel is a personal matter between myself and
my employer. ... I am not going to get into that rhetoric."
The board also named a retired
judge to examine allegations of impropriety against Heisey contained
in a leaked police memo.
There was tension yesterday
over the long-simmering issue of police and politics, which erupted
again last fall during the municipal vote that elected Mayor
David Miller. Miller put three new members on the board, including
vice-chair Pam McConnell and Councillors Case Ootes and John
Filion.
"You tread on exceedingly
dangerous ground when you start to restrict fundamental, core-value
constitutional rights which are the foundation of our democracy,"
McIntosh, head of the 7,000-member police union, told the meeting,
held at police headquarters on College St.
"It is like you are playing
with a loaded gun," he added.
The board formally asked the
Premier to seek a ruling from the Ontario Court of Appeal on,
among other points, whether the association is prohibited from
political activity. It also asked the province for clear legislation
on the issue.
"A neutral and independent
police force is the cornerstone of a free and democratic society,"
McConnell said. "It is antithetical to allow the police
association to do what police officers are legally prohibited
from doing." At one point, she asked McIntosh point-blank
if his association would refrain from endorsing candidates in
elections until the matter is settled.
"No," he replied.
McIntosh maintained that his
union "will not meet to discuss any protocol" with
the board, and that any attempt by the board to interfere with
the rights of his members is "in violation of the supreme
law of the land - our constitution."
"We do not break laws.
Our members put their lives at risk to uphold laws," he
said, adding the Supreme Court guarantees free public debate.
"You have not been to
the Supreme Court," McConnell observed tartly.
Toronto lawyer Paul Copeland
criticized McIntosh and his union, telling the board: "I
think they'll go right ahead and do whatever they want, because
that's what they've always done."
"Traditionally the police
have been neutral in political matters," Copeland said.
He is a member of the Law Union
of Ontario, which launched complaints to the board about the
political activities of the association, as well as Fantino's
alleged involvement in the political process.
`The board is anxious to
resolve this matter as soon as possible'
Pam McConnell , vice-chair
police services board
"I am not, in any way,
shape or form, going to address these frivolous and vexatious
allegations made about me, because they are untruthful,"
Fantino told reporters after the meeting.
McConnell asked Fantino about
recommendations regarding the police department by retired judge
George Ferguson, of the Superior Court of Justice. The judge
held an investigation into police activities, concurrent with
a task force, headed by Chief Superintendent John Neily of the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which probed allegations of corruption
on the drug squad.
That investigation led to six
officers being charged this month with assault, extortion and
conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Fantino reminded the board
that he asked Ferguson to look at systemic issues in the force,
from disclosure of information, recruitment and training to organizational
structure, integrity and police culture.
He said he has received preliminary
findings - none yet made public - and promised a full report
to the police board at its March meeting. Fantino also promised
to publish the findings on the police Web site.
Without providing details,
he said that, as a result of Ferguson's work, "there has
been a total and absolute restructure of how we do drug work
in the city."
He noted that he has made internal
changes that have "given everyone a sense of confidence,"
and stressed that affidavits in the Neily investigation, unveiled
this week, were already two years old and out-of-date.
The affidavits alleged, among
other points, that officers had a "tax" on drug dealers
to ply their trade in specific areas of the city.
Toronto police officers are,
said the chief, "diligent, hard-working and very honest,
trying to do their jobs."
Fantino has faced a challenging
week, with controversy over his contract and questions by a new
board that appears intent on allowing more public scrutiny of
the police budget.
Yesterday, a newspaper report
cited sources as saying Fantino had a heated argument this week
with Superintendent Bob Strathdee after the chief paid a surprise
visit to 12 Division. The report said Strathdee, head of internal
affairs in April, 1999, when the complaints were launched against
the drug squad, was removed as head of 12 Division and transferred
to court support at headquarters.
"The story is completely
wrong," police spokesperson Mark Pugash said yesterday.
He said the encounter did not take place, because Fantino was
out of town, and that Strathdee was not demoted.
The board also acted yesterday
on a controversy of its own by asking retired judge Sydney Robins,
formerly of the Ontario Court of Appeal, to review allegations
against Heisey involving a recently leaked memo from a sex-crimes
unit detective to his superior, written 18 months ago.
The memo said Heisey, while
on the board, asked the detective in 2002 about child pornography
charges against a teacher at his child's school, in a case that
was before the courts. It also says he made an inappropriate
comment about child pornography, an allegation Heisey described
as "deeply offensive."
Critics have attacked the timing
of last week's leak because it diverted attention from a public
hearing into the conduct of former board chair Norm Gardner.
"We are fortunate to have
such a highly respected former jurist undertake this review,"
McConnell said in a statement.
"The board is anxious
to resolve this matter as soon as possible, and Justice Robins
has indicated he appreciates the need for a speedy resolution."
Robins wrote a 2000 report
on how to prevent sexual abuse of children in public schools.
The report led to new laws and regulations governing the conduct
and qualifications of teachers in the public system.
He also successfully arbitrated
a settlement for the province in the 1978 transit labour dispute.
Additional articles by Linda
Diebel
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell