Police officers have a duty to both uphold the law as well as to maintain order. The two can actually conflict at times, but the vast majority of those officers do not cross the thin blue line between protection and endangerment and I suppose we should all be thankful for that. New revelations about last summer's confrontation with Mohawks in Deseronto, Ontario, which shut down the Toronto-Montréal rail lines and caused chaos on the 401 suggest cops don't always practise what they preach. This isn't a new phenomenon, but I didn't exactly expect that the bad behaviour would come from the Chief of the Ontario Provincial Police, Julian Fantino.
There are two points worth considering. One, a wiretap was obtained without court authorization. This is permitted under the federal Criminal Code but it was intended to be used in extremely rare circumstances, such as evidence that a terrorist attack is imminent. It was never meant to eavesdrop on private conversations between peaceful protesters such as those at Deseronto, as the CBC is now reporting actually happened. This sounds like the Big Brother approach the FBI took after 9/11 when they sent in agents to infiltrate American peace groups (as was documented in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11). It also sends the message that one can have an opinion as long as it agrees with that of the government of the day. There is nothing wrong with a peaceful protest in my opinion if it clearly makes its point, and organizers of a peaceful event should be allowed to do so without being eavesdropped upon.
Two, we now know based on preliminary hearing testimony that Fantino warned Shawn Brant who led the protest that the OPP threatened to remove the protesters, including Brant, by force if need be -- in direct contravention of the force's own guidelines put in place after the fiasco at Ipperwash Provincial Park. When Fantino was asked if his threats amounted to a violation of those guidelines, Fantino said they were only guidelines and not official policy.
Be that as it may, I am offended that the protesters pulled back their blockade for reasons other than as an act of good will and faith (that is, they did not do so voluntarily but under duress); and that Brant is facing charges based on something other than the accusation he broke the law. A reasonable person may very well ask what laws were being broken if the police were acting this way. If the police themselves violated the law and procedures does that then cancel out any evidence collected improperly? It also lends credence to the land claim in question and for just and proper compensation if they were previously cheated out of their land.
I really don't care if Fantino's attitude was hardened by the ongoing situation with the Mohawks' brothers and sisters at Six Nations. They are completely separate land claims (claims in the plural) from the claim(s) by the Deseronto band, and need to be dealt with separately based on their own individual merits.
Aboriginals, as well as the rest of us Canadians, deserve better than this from our police. If we want to build bridges it requires good faith on both sides, not hatchets in hiding.
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4 comments:
"I didn't exactly expect that the bad behaviour would come from the Chief of the Ontario Provincial Police, Julian Fantino."
then you don't know Fantino
he has left a trail of dodgy behavior and over-heated rhetoric across the Ontario and its police system
NPV -- Living within range of the Toronto TV stations, I was quite aware here of the reputation Fantino made for himself as Toronto's police chief. It's just one would have presumed when he took over the OPP he might have taken a broader perspective. Guess not.
My point was that we usually expect rogue behaviour from front line cops who can be censured -- when it's the chief then it indicates problems throughout the organization, since it's harder to control the leadership who are supposed to be autonomous from political control.
Sorry, my comment was meant rhetorically, not to disparage your post in any way.
Fantino screwed up the London and York region police before his tedious stint as Toronto chief.
He must have embarrassing photos of the powerful - otherwise he wouldn't get a patronage appt. as a sanitary engineer!
It's quite all right. I heard stories from London too ... I'll just say I'm still surprised that Fantino wasn't considered to clean up the mess with the Mounties. Then again, he may have been seen by PMS as too radioactive.
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