TORONTO CITIZEN POLICE BOARD ADMITS MISTAKES

It's a start but only just barely. Alok Mukherjee is the head of the civilian oversight Board in Toronto whose duty is to ensure that the municipal force follows all procedures, laws, rules and regulations and conduct themselves appropriately and professionally. The Board's failure wasn't so much during the crisis as it was during the weeks and months prior to the G20 Conference in downtown Toronto. This is in the findings of a recently released report by retired justice John Morden. "Effectively, Morden said, the board failed to live up to its responsibilities.". I would suggest that that finding also applies after the fact as well. The civilian oversight board's silence has been overwhelming. This unfortunately may well be the norm with many municipal police boards. They are political appointees and why would any politician appoint someone who might actually have the temerity to question the status quo? I'm willing to bet that our own local police board here in Waterloo Region is so incredibly low profile that 99% of our citizens couldn't name even one or two of the members. This is a symptom of a do nothing, good old boys club board. We've seen the negative results of these kinds of corporate boards and now we are seeing them with police boards.

Last Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Board admits mistakes in G20 policing". Other faults described by justice Morden deal with a complete lack of communication between Toronto police and their board. The board were essentially given the mushroom treatment and worse yet they appeared to accept that treatment, almost as if it was the norm. "Morden's review comes weeks after Ontario's independent police watchdog blasted police for violating civil rights, detaining people illegally and using excessive force.". Alright so now we have the official versions of what everyone already knew. What is going to be done about it? Who is going to be held accountable?