B.C. is set to repeat
Ontario’s mistakes,
but on a bigger scale

An investigation into Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit
shows the danger of attorney-general interference and
the importance of an Ombudsperson’s oversight

Dec. 14, 2011

 

Just two days after my “final” post, news from Ontario prompts me to comment again. A report from the province’s Ombudsman, Andre Marin, castigates the Ontario attorney general’s department for undermining the Special Investigations Unit. This emphasizes two issues that are ignored in B.C. — the danger of A-G interference and the importance of the Ombudsperson’s oversight.

Unlike its Ontario counterpart, B.C.’s new Independent Investigations Office will actually report to our attorney general, making the IIO even more prone to interference than the SIU. And the IIO will lack any kind of independent oversight.

(Additionally the IIO will come under the investigative authority of B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, run by cover-up king Stan Lowe and his crew of ex-cops. The OPCC, in turn, faces no oversight at all — not from the Ombudsperson or anyone else.)

This is entirely the way the BC Liberals, NDP and B.C. Civil Liberties Association want it.

Don’t expect to hear anything from B.C.’s media about this. They might reprint this Ontario story but they won’t look into even worse problems closer to home. In that respect, they’re part of the problem too.

There’s little reason to bother posting this, except to once again point out that these issues are recognized in Ontario but not in B.C.

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