Although Bill Blair swooped in to save Rob Ford from reports that he’d called 911 dispatchers “bitches”—and called himself “Rob fucking Ford”—the CBC’s ombudsperson says the case isn’t necessarily closed. The Toronto Star reported last week that CBC ombudsperson Kirk LaPointe offered the most obvious of conclusions on the incident: that both Blair and the CBC have vested interests in the matter, that only one of them is right and that “it just isn’t clear whom.” He also said the budget squabble between Ford and Blair is reason to cast doubt on the chief’s version of events (you can read the full report here). Of course, we’ll likely never hear the recording of that fateful 911 call—but that doesn’t mean the story is going away anytime soon. For which, honestly, we’re kind of grateful. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
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Reason to Love Toronto: because the city ombudsman fights city hall—and wins
Fiona Crean skis double black diamonds. She paraglides off cliffs in Peru. And as Toronto’s ombudsman—our Judge Judy on all matters municipal—she takes on the power brokers at city hall. In October, she pulled off her biggest coup since starting the job in 2009. Crean discovered that over 90 per cent of the 12,000 claims residents made to the city between 2005 and 2010—over sewer backups, fallen tree branches, potholes and the like—had been automatically rejected. Her team’s sweeping, 14-month investigation unearthed something even more gobsmacking: the staffers who were dismissing these claims were lying to claimants, telling them that an investigation had been conducted. Crean is a seasoned political animal, having worked as interim ombudsman for Ontario, so she knows how the game is played. She held a press conference to reveal her findings, essentially giving Ford—the mayor who prides himself on quality customer service—no option but to comply. She made 10 recommendations, which the city manager, Joe Pennachetti, quickly accepted, promising to implement a new service standard by the end of this month. For a resident with a flooded basement or a cracked axle, that means no more bureaucratic foot-dragging on the other end of the line. Within 18 months—a nanosecond in the glacially paced world of government—Crean spotted a gargantuan problem and fixed it, turning her fury into results. Now that’s something we can get behind.
G20 aftermath: court allows class action lawsuit to proceed
Police at the G20 Summit in Toronto (Image: andrewarchy)
Without any kind of serious, thorough and official reckoning in the wake of the G20 summit in Toronto last summer, we were finally starting to get used to the idea that what Ontario ombudsman André Marin called the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history was going to be brushed off with nothing more than a pat on the head from the feds, a province desperate to pass the buck and an SIU that couldn’t get Toronto police to identify more than a handful of officers. But it looks like we got used to the idea a little too soon. News broke yesterday that a class action lawsuit on behalf of the people rounded up during the G20 will, in fact, go forward.
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How the G20—with its burning cars, broken storefronts, violent beatings and mass arrests—ruined Bill Blair’s popularity
Family business: Blair planned on becoming a lawyer, but followed his dad into the TPS.
On June 26, 2010, Bill Blair was in the middle of the most complicated week of his career. The G20 summit had transformed the peaceful city that Blair had spent most of his life protecting into something closer to a police state. Protesters filled the streets. Steel fences sliced through the downtown core, guarded by black-masked riot police. Busloads of officers had arrived from across the country—cops who didn’t know Toronto’s streets and were technically not even accountable to Blair. Decisions about G20 security were being made by the Integrated Security Unit, a coalition of police and armed forces. The RCMP was responsible for controlling the area within the summit fence. The Toronto Police Service, assisted by officers from 21 provincial police detachments, was left with the rest of the city. The division of responsibilities was so unclear that as the summit began, even the head of the police board was confused about exactly where the ISU’s job ended and the TPS’s began. Blair was worried. International summits like the G20 rarely ended well. The chief had studied recent summits in preparation for the event, and what he found wasn’t encouraging. In Genoa in 2001, police had shot a protester to death. In 2009, rioters looted stores in Pittsburgh. Blair hoped to learn from history’s mistakes, but with tens of thousands of protesters meeting thousands of police officers, there were plenty of opportunities to make new ones.
Five things Torontonians should look for in the federal election debates
This week, Canadians get to watch two debates among the leaders of the four official parties in the House of Commons—the English one is tomorrow night, and the French one the night after (apparently there’s a sporting event of some kind on, so the French debate was moved up a day). As with the last several English-language debates, Steve Paikin will be moderating the showdown, but unlike in 2008 this will be an entirely Green-free event. What can we look forward to when four white men get onstage and redefine “diversity” to mean “Jack Layton’s moustache”? Some ideas, tailored for Torontonians:
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Toronto police enjoying a very special TGIF this week
More than anyone else in this city, the Toronto police (or at least their media people) are probably ready for this week to come to a rapid close. Things started badly enough, with the first of Rosie DiManno’s columns and the Ontario ombudsman’s report coming out Tuesday. The week continued to get worse with speculation over whether police Chief Bill Blair would lose his job (unlikely), and Blair had to respond by addressing the press from a conference in Victoria, B.C. Yesterday morning, Blair told CBC’s Matt Galloway that the police force had finally identified 14 police officers involved in the beating of Adam Nobody.
The PR drubbing for the cops got worse again yesterday, as Andre Marin reiterated the findings of his report, taking issue with the cops’ defenders, who claim that the G20 fence rule wasn’t that big a deal because, hey, only two people were arrested:
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Ontario Ombudsman calls G20 fence “illegal,” “likely unconstitutional”
Not all the blame for G20 abuses needs to be heaped on Bill Blair—it looks like the Ontario government may come in for some licks too, after Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin released a report today calling the Liberals’ use of the Public Works Protection Act, now immortalized as the “G20 fence law,” an abuse of a law that gave the police “wartime powers.” The report’s main findings:
• The PWPA is probably unconstitutional, and the arrests under its authority are massive abuses of civil rights.
• Even if the law was fine, it still ought to have been handled better. (No kidding?) The province didn’t publicize the regulation well, and hasn’t handled the aftermath well either.
• Many of the people caught up in the police sweeps of the fence were innocent bystanders.
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Seven Long Years: How will David Miller be remembered?
As a kvetchy, largely ineffective do-gooder ultimately undone by the unionists who helped elect him
(Image: by Frank Gunn/CP; photo-illustration by Gluekit)
Unless Joe Pantalone, the unrepentant David Miller acolyte, mounts a surprise surge, our next mayor will arrive at city hall on an explicit promise to do things profoundly differently than his (or her) predecessor. George Smitherman promises to do things differently with a degree of sobriety; Rob Ford promises to do things differently with a flame-thrower and a manic glint in his eye.
It’s timely, then, to recall Miller’s own rise to power. He was elected because he thought it was a bad idea to build a bridge across the western gap of Toronto Harbour, which is only 121 metres wide. Remember the fixed link? It was a burning issue in 2003. It was incompatible with a revitalized waterfront, Miller insisted. Much smarter would be to pressure Ottawa to deliver a rail link to Pearson airport. Read the rest of this entry »
G20 fence rule got whole minutes of consideration: Star
Don't fence me in: the CN Tower during the G20 (Image: Alfred Ng from the torontolife.com Flickr pool)
Everybody wants an efficient government, but this is a bit ridiculous: the Ontario cabinet meeting at which the expanded police powers during the G20 were approved dealt with over 116 different items—that we know of so far—before the legislature adjourned for the summer. The Toronto Star had to file five written requests for the cabinet orders in council and still hasn’t unearthed everything. The short list of what happened that day is impressive enough, though:
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Cops look for public input in G20 review—just don’t mention officers, the OPP, the RCMP, personal experiences or operational matters
This morning, the Toronto Police Services Board will begin taking public input on the scope of the city’s inquiry into policing during the G20 summit. This is the first baby step toward one of the many investigations that have been promised since the summit: Ontario’s ombudsman, Andre Marin, is investigating the province’s “five-metre rule” that didn’t exist, and Ottawa might get involved if the Tories ever let a committee get started. The TPSB will be looking to frame the inquiry today, and name a head of the inquiry sometime in August. This all sounds good, except that the cops have indicated that they’d prefer not to investigate individual officers, the OPP, the RCMP, personal experiences or operational matters.
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I hear Toronto recently got its first ombudsman, which has me wondering, Why now? And what exactly does an ombudsman do?
First the why. In 2006, the provincial government passed the City of Toronto Act, which gave Ontario’s capital a whole whack of new powers. Of course, with great power (or in this case, the power to distribute four different sizes of recycling bins) comes great responsibility, which is why the act stipulates that the city employ an ombudsman. The reason we’re just getting one now can be chalked up to the standard snail’s pace at which all things city hall tend to operate. Now the what. You may be oblivious to the ins and outs of the “o” word, but you’re not alone. According to our first ombudsman, Fiona Crean, a surprising number of high-level professionals are unfamiliar with the term. If it sounds more like a new IKEA product than a job title, that may be because it is, in fact, Swedish. Loosely translated, it means “representative of the people” and describes an appointed person who investigates public complaints against administrative bodies. Thus far, Crean and her team have fielded gripes from more than 250 citizens, wielding some demi-superhero powers—issuing subpoenas, searching city offices—in order to recommend policy and practice changes to city council. In short, this is one busy woman, so before troubling her with minor peeves (such as garbage collectors who leave potato peels in the bottom of the green bin), picky citizens should start by contacting the department that’s done them wrong. The ombudsman, says Crean, is the office of last resort.
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