Police accountability:
Comparing B.C. with Ontario (III)

A conflict between Ontario police and the SIU
contrasts with the very chummy relationship
between B.C. cops and the OPCC

May 7, 2010

An ongoing dispute between Ontario police and the Special Investigations Unit has reached the province’s Superior Court of Justice. The controversy involves note-vetting, in which police officers write notes about a serious incident only after considerable delay, consultation with each other and consultation with a lawyer, who also talks to all other officers involved. The notes are then submitted as evidence.

The SIU is one of Ontario’s two police oversight agencies. Unlike B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, it actually investigates police. The SIU does so using civilian investigators, some of whom come from a purely civilian background. Following an investigation, the SIU director can lay criminal charges.

In addition, there’s another way that the SIU differs from the OPCC. The SIU stands up to the police.

You can read about the Ontario dispute here. Compare that with the approach taken by Stan Lowe and his crew of ex-cops here.

The OPCC’s chummy relationship with cops might be explained by a powerful police lobby. (More info here and here.) In Ontario, open conflict has broken out as police management and unions see their interests challenged by a much more effective system of police accountability. In B.C., however, the police lobby seems powerful enough to work quietly behind the scenes.

That could explain a lot about the OPCC’s leadership, as well as its staff and decisions.

That could also explain the spectacle of two otherwise antagonistic political parties uniting to preserve B.C.’s police status quo.

Is it any wonder that B.C.’s Mounties are so willing to put themselves under provincial “oversight”?

Police accountability: Comparing B.C. with Ontario (I)
Their system is a flawed work in progress
but it surpasses ours in three crucial areas
Police accountability: Comparing B.C. with Ontario (II)
Without an ombudsperson’s strong oversight
B.C.’s police ‘watchdog’ will remain B.C.’s police lapdog
Police accountability: Comparing B.C. with Ontario (IV)
Ontario’s NDP criticizes the AG for
‘buckling under a very powerful police lobby.’
Meanwhile B.C.’s NDP, Liberals and cops
stand united against police accountability
Police accountability: Comparing B.C. with Ontario (V)
Ontario’s SIU faces public criticism and a second investigation
by the provincial Ombudsman. B.C.’s OPCC continues to escape scrutiny
Police accountability: Comparing B.C. with Ontario (VI)
You won’t read this in B.C.’s mainstream media.
And that’s part of the reason we’ll never have effective police oversight