 
CCLA Urges Ipperwash Inquiry to Recommend More Political Direction for the Police At a forum organized by the Ipperwash Inquiry, CCLA General Counsel Alan Borovoy attacked the "conventional wisdom" in Canada on political control over the police. Traditionally, the politicians are supposed to keep out of the day-to-day operations of the police forces. "Why do we assume that only politicians have political biases and police don't?" Borovoy asked. In any event, he argued, the risk of politicizing the police could be minimized through a system for independently auditing the relationship between police and government. The Ipperwash Inquiry was convened after the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) shooting of an unarmed aboriginal protester during the 1995 aboriginal occupation of Ipperwash Provincial Park in Ontario. Departing from their long-standing practice of restraint in such matters, the OPP went into the park forcibly to remove the occupiers. Following an investigation by Ontario's Special Investigation Unit (SIU), an officer was convicted for the shooting but no jail time was served. When Ontario's then-premier Mike Harris was grilled in the Legislature about possible government involvement in the OPP action, he reportedly replied that the supervision of such police actions is "no business" of the government's. "But how can there be political responsibility for the police," asked Borovoy, "if the government can't even know about such an important operation?" | CCLA In The Schools | Join Us | Feedback | Search | Other Interesting Sites | Home |
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