I don’t imagine Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin will have anything flattering to say about Toronto police chief Bill Blair at his press conference this afternoon.
The Ombudsman is expected to release the findings of his probe into the mysterious five-metre rule used by cops during the G20 to search hundreds of innocent passersby who happened to wander near the security fence erected around the downtown for the summit.
For Blair, the verdict may already been in. What we already know is that Blair requested the powers of the province – only the special authority for police to search was to apply inside the fence, not outside it. Is there more?
The Ombudsman’s office received 22 complaints relating to the G20, including several alleging violations of civil liberties.
Marin’s findings have been a long time coming. His probe was announced July 9.
Why did the chief allow the confusion around the law’s existence to persist? And what does it say about Blair that he was willing to allow the public’s rights to be trampled on?
The chief insists he was in commend at all relevant times during the G20. There is evidence to suggest otherwise, that he was in fact out of the loop at crucial times when cops were getting out of control on the street. His allies say he has been made the fall guy in the G20 mess.
Still, the chief has refused to call to account those officers who may have overstepped their powers during the summit, even questioning the Special Investigations Unit’s probe into six incidents in which protestors suffered serious injuries that included fractures.
Last Friday, the chief was forced to retract statements that the SIU relied on video evidence that was tampered with in one of its investigations.
The SIU did not lay charges in any of the incidents it probed, in some cases because the officers involved could not be tracked down, in others because officers refused to cooperate with the SIU, and in one case because a badge number filed with arrest documents had been intentionally misrepresented.
The bigger question is: why hasn’t the chief issued an order calling on his troops who may know something to come forward?
We know that dozens of officers, possibly hundreds, who worked the G20 did not display their badge numbers on their uniforms, making them unidentifiable, which in itself suggests they had every intention of escaping the consequences, should they break the law.
But this serious breach of police protocol will reportedly only result in one day’s pay lost for those officers involved – at least, those who can be identified.
The chief has gone through a strange metamorphosis in recent weeks, the whys and wherefores of which so far remain a bit of a mystery.
Perhaps the heat of upcoming contract talks with the police union is getting to him. Or, the fact there’s a new sheriff in town, aka as Rob Ford, and Blair is simply taking on the, ‘you’re either for the police, or you’re against the police,’ attitude of the new administration. Call it the Ford effect.
Remember, Blair was David Miller’s man, the progressive cop prepared to embrace community policing. Ford prefers a guy of the Julian Fantino ilk in control. In fact, he mused about bringing Fantino back during the campaign. That’s not possible now that Julie has gone on to bigger and better things in Ottawa, but is there someone else in police ranks that Fordo’s got his eye on? Maybe someone from his neck of the woods in 22 Division?
Blair’s contract, quietly renewed last year, doesn’t expire for four more years. But there will be three new council appointees to the Police Services Board. None of the chief’s current allies on the board, councillors Pam McConnell, Adam Vaughan or Frank DiGiorgio will be returning.
And right now Ford’s crew seems to be taking its marching orders from the police union, not the chief. Take, for example, the debate over Ford’s plans to hire 100 more police officers.
There’s serious question as to whether they’re even required. Crime rates are down. And by insisting on the new complement, Ford’s team may be pissing away money the city’s getting from the province for TAVIS, the flying squad doing a bang up job of keeping gang bangers under wraps. But no matter. What are the odds a previously reluctant chief will come around on that file?
The madness may just be beginning with another domino in this narrative set to fall this afternoon at Queen’ Park. Marin has scheduled his press conference for 1 pm.
UPDATE:
And the Ombudsman came out swinging. He called the G20 “the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history.” He went on to say the infamous five-metre rule (wherein you could not step five metres around the security perimeter) was more like five-kilometer rule. “Police searched people all over the city. This was of dubious legality.”
Marin says G20 officials “made the conscious decision not to release information, not to alert the public about ‘martial law,'” that was essentially in place. He went on to say the the “government had option to pass proper law, not rely on secret” rules. “Even in 1970, the War Measures Act was public.”
Most interestingly, Marin says the Toronto Police cooperation was “zero.” “It was astounding. We found info elsewhere.”
More to come.
