Complaint exposes police force rift
Rights grievance offers glimpse into department’s inner workings
An Ottawa police inspector who was repeatedly passed over for promotion has a filed a human rights complaint alleging that the chief of police discriminated against him because of his skin colour.
The police service, however, is defending itself against the “bald allegations” of racial discrimination by saying the officer was openly critical of Chief Charles Bordeleau and therefore “unfit” for promotion.
Insp. Samir Bhatnagar has been an Ottawa police officer since 1991. In 2012, he entered into the promotional process to become a superintendent – the highest rank of officers promoted by senior police brass. The force’s chief and deputy chiefs are all hired by the police board.
In a complaint filed to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario in November 2017, Bhatnagar claims that he was singled out as a “brown-skinned man of East Indian origin.” Bhatnagar’s complaint says he was denied a promotion and that he was the subject of differential and disproportionate treatment by both Bordeleau and members of his senior executive.
“The ugly fact is that the Ottawa police and Chief Bordeleau do not see police officers of colour as suitable for positions of senior leadership in the service,” said Bhatnagar’s lawyer Paul Champ. “Despite all the rhetoric of inclusion and recruitment from visible minority communities, the OPS does not have a single officer of colour at the rank of superintendent or above, and there has only been one in the entire 150-year history of the service.”
That officer, Uday Jaswal, left the Ottawa force as a superintendent in 2016 to take a position as deputy chief in Durham region. The Ottawa service has recently heralded the efforts of Insp. Isobel Granger, one of the service’s very first black female officers who just this year became the same department’s first black female inspector, some 23 years after she was first hired.
The police board, as the employer of the service, has denied all of Bhatnagar’s claims in its response to his complaint, and has posited a defence that offers a window into the inner workings of an Ottawa police force that has been plagued for years by allegations of differing treatment of officers.
Bhatnagar was passed over for promotion, the board admits, but because of his own refusal, it says, to fall in line with the directions of a police chief who felt Bhatnagar could not be trusted.
“The chief has significant concerns about his suitability for senior leadership. The applicant has demonstrated an open defiance of and disrespect for the chief and other leaders and an attitude signifying his belief that he knows better than those individuals,” the board says.
It’s a poor excuse, says Bhatnagar’s lawyer, and gives the service a way out of acknowledging a systemic problem.
The force doesn’t dispute Bhatnagar’s “stellar record as an officer or the fact he scored at the top or near the top in the superintendent competitions,” Champ says.
“Instead, Chief Bordeleau makes up the excuse that Insp. Bhatnagar isn’t a good ‘fit’ or isn’t ‘suitable’ because he isn’t loyal enough. Denying a promotion to the most qualified candidate because he or she isn’t the right ‘fit’ just smells. And when that individual is the only candidate of colour, that pungent scent is discrimination,” Champ says.
Bhatnagar, in his complaint, says that despite excellent performance reviews and having qualified to enter a pool of possible superintendents in 2012, he has stalled in his efforts to advance in the organization under Bordeleau’s leadership.
“These promotions and opportunities have been regularly made available to my white colleagues during this same period, despite the fact many of them do not have my breadth of experience or comparable performance reviews,” Bhatnagar says in the complaint.
Superintendents at the force must first apply for the position, pass a written exam and be interviewed before they are pooled into a group of possible candidates. Only those who have been successful in the process are pooled. From there, the chief, deputy police chiefs and the civilian directorgeneral of the force make the final decision on who is promoted based on several factors, including “trust, ability to support the executive, fit, and needs of the organization,” according to the police board’s reply to Bhatnagar’s complaint.
Despite being told that he scored first in the process in 2012, Bhatnagar has not been promoted. All other candidates in the pool, including those who entered in 2014 and 2016, have been promoted ahead of him.
Bhatnagar says he has also been unfairly monitored and disciplined, citing several incidents, including leaving a police memorial early because of a family commitment, looking at his phone during a meeting with a consultant and for not attending a 2017 badge ceremony for new recruits, which served as a lightning rod at a time of dissension among the ranks over Bordeleau’s leadership. The union representing rank-and-file officers had severed ties with the chief and opted not to attend the ceremony.
Bhatnagar says attendance at the badge ceremony was not mandatory and that he had planned to attend but was called away due to a human resources issue with a member of the force who was “in crisis.”
Bhatnagar, however, has no formal discipline record and, according to the complaint, he is highly regarded among his peers and the community.
Bhatnagar’s repeated attempts to discuss his treatment with Bordeleau have not amounted to much, according to the complaint. Bhatnagar claims he was routinely avoided, ignored, talked around or deemed confrontational.
The interactions came to a head in a November 2016 meeting where Bhatnagar expressed to Bordeleau that he felt he was being discriminated against.
“The chief disagreed that there was any differential treatment toward me based on race. He then noted that he had in fact promoted one visible minority, Uday Jaswal, to superintendent, but added the caveat that he ‘took quite a risk’ in doing so,” Bhatnagar’s complaint says.
According to the board, the risk involved was due to Jaswal’s “relatively junior status” as a senior officer and that there was hesitance by some decision-makers to see him promoted.
The impact on Bhatnagar has been cumulative.
“Enduring over five years of discrimination and reprisal based on race and race-related grounds has had an enormously negative impact on my dignity,” Bhatnagar says in the complaint.
Bordeleau and the force’s conduct has made Bhatnagar feel “as though my race or colour matter more than my individual performance or merit, and that promoting visible minorities to senior positions is still seen as ‘risky’ — notwithstanding how qualified I am or how much I have done to demonstrate my leadership abilities.”
After the November 2016 meeting with the chief, Bhatnagar was “deeply upset.”
“This is the organization to which I have dedicated my professional life, and for which I have excelled. To have my race or colour viewed as a barrier or risk to promotion profoundly affected me,” his complaint says. He went on sick leave for two months following the meeting.
“It has been demeaning for me to face professional colleagues when I am passed over for acting opportunities. It has been noted by others and comments have been made.”
The board, in its defence, says Bhatnagar’s “own conduct was the sole reason for his failure to obtain the promotion.”
Bordeleau declined to comment when reached by this newspaper, deferring to the police board.
In a statement, police board chair Coun. Eli El-Chantiry said the board is “committed to ensuring the Ottawa Police Service is as reflective as possible of the community it serves and we continue to work hard to ensure that our merit-based recruiting and promotions are in support of this.
“We are also continuing to work through our Gender Audit and Diversity audit processes to identify and eliminate any barriers where they exist.
“We are proud of this continued focus and are committed to the ongoing work on this issue. We continue to see diversity in our new classes of recruits and we continue to push for more. As well, just recently a very well qualified, experienced and professional group of individuals were promoted in the Senior Officer ranks.”
The board, in its reply to his complaint, argues that Bhatnagar’s allegation of unfairness is not linked to a Human Rights Code-protected ground such as race and should therefore be dismissed by the tribunal.
Superintendents “must be trusted by the chief,” the board says. “They are privy to all aspects of the OPS, such that the chief requires the utmost trust that each superintendent supports his mandate, both privately and publicly.”
All of those officers whom the chief has promoted to superintendent have “earned and maintained the chief ’s trust, in addition to exhibiting the skills required of a superintendent.”
Moreover, the board argues that Bhatnagar is part of a “small group of senior officers” who have been “openly critical, defiant and insubordinate in its dealings with the chief.”
The group, which the board posits has aligned itself with rank-and-file union president Matt Skof, “has consistently and repeatedly undermined the chief both privately and publicly.
“As a senior officer in the OPS, the applicant is expected to put the OPS first. However he has frequently failed to do so, instead aligning himself with those critical of the OPS’s mandate and leadership. This conduct is incompatible with the rank of superintendent.”
The board, however, has said that Bhatnagar is suitable for some workplace opportunities that fall outside the reach of the municipal force.
The board says Bhatnagar, who is currently on a “highly coveted” secondment with the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, was chosen by the chief and his executive team as “the best fit for secondment, given his extensive skills and background.”
Bhatnagar is seeking $140,000 in damages for both “harm to dignity, feelings and self-respect” and for loss of income he would have received had he been promoted to superintendent in 2012.
He’s also seeking an immediate promotion to superintendent and for the tribunal to mandate anti-discrimination training for Bordeleau and senior officers to avoid racial discrimination in the promotional process.
The board, which admits no wrongdoing, sees no need for financial compensation or any further training or policy amendments.
The tribunal will decide if Bhatnagar’s allegations amount to racial discrimination by the service. Both Bhatnagar and the police board have agreed to mediation.
Enduring over five years of discrimination and reprisal based on race and race-related grounds has had an enormously negative impact on my dignity.