No matter how you spin the story, the notion that the OPP Commissioner should be a good friend of the Premier of Ontario is just wrong. Independence between the top of the Ontario’s police and the top of the Ontario government must be a fundamental necessity for obvious reasons. The fact that the Deputy OPP Commissioner who complained about that wrong has now been fired is even more wrong.
Collision Reconstruction sometimes enters the whelm of police and politics because some much relies on maintaining persons in the field who are trustworthy. When that trustworthiness comes into question it is a domino that has an effect on the functioning of many people and institutions.
When Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford was allegedly involved in the hiring of his close friend, Superintendent Ron Taverner, as the OPP Commissioner, bypassing more senior members of the OPP, the perception that something dishonest took place should have been recognized as a detriment to public perceptions of both the Ontario government and those in charge of the Commissioner’s hiring process. When the Deputy Commissioner of the OPP, Brad Blair, raised concerns over the hiring process persons should have taken notice. Commissioner Blair was not just an ordinary bloke off the street with an uninformed opinion. His request for a review of that hiring process should have commenced a review. Instead Premier Ford made some accusations about Blair that led to Blair seeking court action. Now Blair has been fired. As if his disagreement with Ford, or his raising a red flag about the hiring process, had nothing to do with the firing. There are many gullible persons but very few would believe that there was no connection. Even if the firing proceeds, the incoming OPP Commissioner will have a large cloud hanging over him, a cloud that cannot exist at the top of the Provincial police force which could be called upon to investigate actions of members of the Provincial Government and possibly even Premier Ford himself. This is reminiscent of the tactics of “the-man-in-the-white-house”, whose constant lies become longer by the day like the nose of some cartoon Pinocchio.
We are not better off when being led by Al Capones while closing our eyes and ears to the warnings of honest men.