Province releases Independent Report on Police Oversight Reform
By Christine McFarlane Smith
TORONTO—On April 6, the Ministry of the Attorney General and the Province of Ontario released an Independent Report on Police Oversight Reform at the Delta Chelsea Hotel in downtown Toronto. Ontario is to immediately begin building a more transparent and accountable police oversight system to strengthen trust between police and the communities that they serve.
Throughout fall 2016, the Independent Police Oversight Review held 17 public meetings and 130 private stakeholder meetings in communities across the province. There are three police oversight bodies in Ontario: The Special Investigations Unit, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, and the Ontario Civilian Police Commission.
The final report, which was handed out in book form to those in attendance, has 129 recommendations to help Ontario transform police oversight so that it is more transparent and accountable. Within the report there is one chapter focused on Indigenous peoples and police oversight.
In attendance at the meeting was John L’il Bear Fox senior from Wikwemikong Unceded Reserve, and a small group of supporters.
Fox went to the release of this report in hopes that some concerns would be addressed.
“As a family, the report on policing oversight would reflect [our] many concerns specific to the problems of policing in this community,” stated Fox.
He was disappointed in the outcome because there was very little addressed with his concerns surrounding the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and though he stood up with a picture of his daughter, he was not given a chance to voice his opinion on anything said in the room.
“The complaint everywhere is that people are scared to complain because of the retaliation against individuals who are not talking and you saw today that I wasn’t given the time of day here, just ignored and that is how I am always treated you know,” expressed Fox. “I came here because I know our people are Indigenous here and across Ontario. I gave a lot of input and feedback into this. And what I asked for was a taskforce on policing and to have more in depth look at the relationship between our people and the police. That’s what I asked for and I was hoping that they would say something about this, but they didn’t so I am back to square one.”
Fox maintains his concerns despite the release of the report.
“I still have many concerns surrounding the police in our community,” added Fox. “All the people that were here today for this peaceful action, I wanted them to hear what was happening up in the police review report, but they only gave us a small section in the report. I am not happy.”