Dec. 12, 2011 Backgrounder 6:
The NDP: Supporting the BC Liberals’ efforts
to thwart police accountability
Interestingly for the government’s arch-enemy, the NDP has consistently supported the BC Liberals’ position on police accountability.
NDP MLAs Mike Farnworth and Leonard Krog served on the five-MLA committee that unanimously chose Stan Lowe as police complaint commissioner in 2008. The appointment was announced the week after Lowe’s infamous Dziekanski decision.
Despite growing public concern about police accountability, the NDP supported the 2009 Police Act amendments that changed nothing of substance. The party’s only objection was the lack of retroactivity, which would have forced then-solicitor general Kash Heed to face formal complaints made against him when he was West Vancouver police chief. That one objection notwithstanding, the party voted unanimously in favour of the legislation.
The NDP also voted unanimously in favour of this year’s legislation establishing the Independent Investigations Office, despite the fact that the act gutted Thomas Braidwood’s recommendations and falls far short of the Ontario model that it was supposedly following.
I’m not aware of any other significant issue in which these two warring parties, the NDP and BC Liberals, agree on wholeheartedly.
Backgrounders to December 12, 2011 media release:
1. The OPCC: B.C.’s little-known police oversight agency
2. B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office: Not what it’s made out to be
3. B.C. media and police accountability: Little coverage and often inaccurate
4. The Don Morrison controversy: The one time that the OPCC did receive scrutiny
5. The BCCLA: Part of the problem with our system of police accountability
6. The NDP: Supporting the BC Liberals’ efforts to thwart police accountability
7. About me
Go to the Dec. 12, 2011 news release
Go to the News and Comment page