ONTARIO GOVERNMENT REFUSES INDEPENDENT PROBE OF CONTENTIOUS POLICE SPYING

Ontario community safety minister Monte Kwinter has refused a CCLA request for an independent investigation of reported police spying. A leaked police report contended that, when Susan Eng was chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, she was subjected to systematic police surveillance. It was similarly declared that the police had then spied on certain gay activists.

Arguing that the planned probe of the matter by the Chief was not sufficient, CCLA General Counsel Alan Borovoy told the minister that, since the chief has departmental interests to protect, "he is engulfed ... in a classic conflict of interest". Mr. Kwinter replied that he could not take the requested action because he "must not become directly involved in operational policing matters". When Borovoy countered that Mr. Kwinter's government had ordered an independent inquiry into the Ipperwash incident, Kwinter replied that he had "every confidence in the process" undertaken by the Toronto board.