‘I was blindsided’: Peel Region councillor suddenly removed as police board chair
Thestar.com
July 22, 2018
Louie Rosella
Less than six months into the role and shortly after sparking an integrity commissioner’s investigation into one of her council colleagues, Sue McFadden is out as chair of the Peel Regional Police Services Board (PSB).
The surprise move, announced Thursday shocked many in the political and policing communities, none more so than McFadden, the councillor for Ward 10 in Mississauga, who didn’t mince words in a statement Friday expressing her disapproval and frustration with the decision.
“I am thoroughly disappointed with the unilateral action taken by the Peel Police Services Board to purport to remove me as chair of the board at its hastily-called special meeting,” Sue McFadden said.
“I am thoroughly disappointed with the unilateral action taken by the Peel Police Services Board to purport to remove me as chair of the board at its hastily-called special meeting,” she said, noting the decision by the board was made July 16, in-camera.
“I was blindsided. I did not step down or resign the position. I am seeking legal advice on whether the purported removal was illegal.”
Norma Nicholson, formerly vice-chair of the board, was elected the new chair at the meeting, while board member Louise Mitchell was elected vice-chair.
The move is raising eyebrows, given the peculiar timing.
Just last week, Peel Region Council voted to have Ward 5 Coun. Carolyn Parrish docked five days pay and take sensitivity training on sex and race-based biases, after an integrity commissioner’s report into her racial insults, via text messages, toward Peel police officer Ingrid Berkeley-Brown, now deputy chief of police.
McFadden had strong words for the police board Friday, saying members removed her as chair because of the Parrish incident.
“While the board gave no reason for replacing me as chair, I believe this is a retaliatory measure following the board’s decision to file a complaint with the integrity commissioner that resulted in sanctions against Mississauga councillor Carolyn Parrish for racist and sexist comments she made to me regarding a high-ranking police officer,” McFadden said in the statement.
“I felt obliged to share those comments with the board and the chief and am now being punished for doing the right thing.”
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The texts were sent by Parrish to McFadden, following a public meeting in Malton Feb. 15 about closing the community police station in that area.
She expressed her frustration with Berkely-Brown, then a superintendent with the force, to McFadden through text messages.
In one of them to McFadden, Parrish states, “It seems being black and female qualifies people for promotion which is dead wrong,” according to the integrity commissioner’s report.
In another message, Parrish tells McFadden she had to defend the closing of the police station at the meeting “because the black female superintendent is awful.” Both texts were sent during the Peel police hiring process for deputy chief.
The report found Parrish’s statements constitute discrimination under the Human Rights Code and are in breach of the Peel Code of Conduct.
Parrish declined to comment on McFadden’s removal as police board chair when contacted Friday.
Robert Serpe, executive director of the PSB, said he couldn’t comment because it happened during an in-camera (closed to the public) meeting.
McFadden, who still remains a PSB member, was appointed chair in late January.
The chair of the PSB earns $18,011 in annual compensation.
Nicholson has been on the board since February 2015. She’s a registered nurse, author, speaker and “youth expert,” according to the board.
