Watchdog begins probe into deputy police chief
The Ontario Civilian Police Commission has commenced its investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and unwanted touching levied against the deputy chief of the Ottawa Police Service by a civilian employee.
Watchdog investigators have begun interviewing witnesses in the probe.
In a human rights complaint filed in August, a civilian employee alleged she was sexually harassed by Uday Jaswal, dealt with his unwanted sexual advances and then was touched without consent. The woman alleged that when Jaswal’s advances were spurned he interfered in her attempts to get hired as a police officer.
None of the allegations against Jaswal have been proven. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and suggested the allegations have been motivated by other intentions.
The service was aware of an allegation that the spouse of the complainant, an Ottawa police officer, had offered to get rid of damning text messages if Jaswal removed the roadblocks to get his wife hired as a cop. That allegation is unproven and was never fully investigated.
The Ottawa police board met for several hours in-camera in September to discuss the allegations. Those talks included learning there has been no precedent in the province to suspend a deputy chief of police over allegations in a human rights complaint. Board members also reviewed a letter from Jaswal’s lawyer asking the force to preserve the evidence of police employees who may have knowledge of the allegations against the complainant’s husband as well as evidence related to the complainant’s failed recruitment process.
The board decided to keep Jaswal on the job, but asked OCPC to investigate the allegations made in the complaint and to advise the board should the watchdog think suspension is warranted.
But in a letter from OCPC, obtained by the Citizen, the watchdog not only said the board used the wrong section of the Police Services Act to ask them to investigate, but also that the civilian commission has no jurisdiction to suggest any sanction against a deputy chief. What it can do, the commission wrote, is conduct an investigation and give the board its findings.
“The board has requested that should the commission be of the view that a suspension of Deputy Chief Jaswal is warranted, it requests the commission make the recommendation to the board as to this issue,” the commission wrote.
The decision to suspend Jaswal is the board’s, not the commission’s.
“Although the investigation is being conducted by the commission ... the decision on whether to suspend still rests with the board. While the commission may, in certain circumstances, provide guidance or direction on this type of issue, it would be inappropriate to comment or direct the board on this issue in this particular matter as the commission will be the investigating entity.”
That investigation will include deciding whether misconduct charges should be laid against Jaswal under the Police Services Act.
The probe will also be separate from one in Durham, where OCPC is also investigating whether Jaswal, as former deputy chief in that region, committed misconduct. But according to the Ottawa civilian complainant’s lawyer, Paul Champ, it is the same team of investigators looking into both complaints. syogaretnam@postmedia.com twitter.com/shaaminiwhy