Peel police board needs new leadership, say mayors

Brampton’s Linda Jeffrey and Mississauga’s Bonnie Crombie seek a policing shakeup, starting with making an anti-carding ally chair of the board.

Thestar.com
Jan. 29, 2016
By San Grewal

Friday could mark a watershed moment for the Peel Region police force as calls mount for dramatic changes.

The civilian board overseeing Canada’s third-largest municipal police force will elect a new chair. And its two most powerful members, Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey and Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, are both backing Amrik Singh Ahluwalia as the one to take it in a new direction - one that would better represent the region’s diverse population and challenge the stalemate on issues such as street checks.

Jeffrey disclosed her choice to the Star in an email Thursday. “I believe and have stated repeatedly that Peel Police, its leadership and the board that governs it should seek to be representative of the community they serve and protect,” she said.

Crombie said much the same, praising Ahluwalia, a retired engineer popular in the Punjabi-Canadian community for his volunteer work and organizational skills.

“Moving forward, we have to ensure that the priorities of the board better reflect the challenges facing our rapidly growing and diverse neighbourhoods,” Crombie wrote in an email Thursday while in India as part of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s trade mission. She won’t be present for Friday’s vote by the seven-member board.

Critics have said the Peel Police Services Board, after 18 years of leadership by former regional chair Emil Kolb, and less than two years under current chair Laurie Williamson, a former Mississauga car dealer, had allowed the force to operate with little accountability or oversight.

“We are now at an important turning point,” Crombie said, pointing out that the board’s decisions have “profound impact” on two of Canada’s largest cities.

Conflicts over street checks, a human rights complaint and other issues in recent months have highlighted a perceived disconnect between police leadership and the community, and the force’s failure to reflect the diverse population it serves. A new police board chair could play a major role in setting a fresh agenda and implementing change.

“I couldn’t believe that with all the controversy over racial profiling, carding and the treatment of marginalized people by police, the Peel board had never even addressed these issues, which we knew were just as bad, if not worse in Peel than they were in Toronto,” said Howard Morton, former director of Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, which probes police conduct in encounters involving fatalities or serious injury.

“When I delegated the board in September on the carding issue and witnessed the pushback from the chief and the board chair, it was clear that things need to be overhauled,” said Morton, who as a member of the Law Union of Ontario played a role in the fight to end “carding.”

At that September meeting, Crombie and Jeffrey were locked in a fight with Police Chief Jennifer Evans over the controversial practice, known in Peel as “street checks.” Crombie cited data reported by the Star showing that black individuals were three times as likely to be stopped by Peel police for these checks than whites.
After the mayors led a 4-3 vote to end the practice, Evans immediately responded that “Street checks will continue in Peel,” claiming the board did not have authority over her on operational matters. Morton and other legal experts have issued rebuttals to that claim.

Williamson was among the three votes against ending street checks and supported Evans’ decision to ignore the request. Voting with the mayors were board members Norma Nicholson and Ahluwalia.

Sources told the Star that Williamson will seek to retain his seat as chair. He did not respond to the Star’s request for confirmation.

In October, just before the province announced it would end random carding in Ontario, Brampton MPP Jagmeet Singh spoke pointedly at Queen’s Park about Evans’ refusal to suspend the practice.

Various other issues have dogged Evans and her force:

After her claims that carding was a key crime fighting tool, internal emails obtained by the Star in September showed Evans tried for three years to find cases solved using carding, but come up with only six examples over 10 years.

Data obtained by the Star in August under a freedom of information request showed that 13 per cent of uniformed officers were visible minorities in 2010, while 60 per cent of Brampton and Mississauga residents were visible minorities.

In 2012, Superior Court Justice Deena Baltman slammed Peel drug squad officers for an “illegal search” and committing “perjury, en masse” in a drug case. The force’s internal affairs bureau faced heavy criticism.

After a yearlong fight to obtain internal disciplinary records, in September the Star reported on the behaviour of some of the roughly 60 Peel officers disciplined for misconduct since 2010, such as sexual harassment.

After being overlooked for a promotion in 2013, Staff Sgt. Baljiwan (B.J.) Sandhu testified to the Human Rights Tribunal in November about alleged systemic discrimination he faced over almost 25 years in the force. The force is challenging Sandhu’s claims.

In June, lawyer Laura Liscio, who had been arrested and handcuffed in a courthouse while wearing a lawyer’s robe, filed a $1.5-million lawsuit against the force for libel and slander after being cleared of allegations that she had tried to smuggle drugs to clients.

“We need to ask tough questions, find solutions and be accountable for our actions,” Crombie said in her emailed call for change. “We did this last year, when a majority of the Board voted to end street checks, including Mr. Amrik Ahluwalia.

“Working together, we will continue to support our brave men and women in uniform, while at the same time implementing policy solutions that elevate Peel Police’s reputation as a modern, effective and respected police force.”