Police watchdog probing Coun. Ferguson

Coun. Green says board chair being investigated for comments about disciplinary hearing

A civilian police watchdog is probing a complaint against police board chair Lloyd Ferguson.

Coun. Matthew Green filed a complaint with the Ontario Civilian Police Commission following comments Ferguson made on a radio show in June related to a contentious police disciplinary hearing.

That hearing was called after Hamilton Const. Andrew Pfeifer was accused of arbitrarily stopping Green, who is black. The councillor argued the arbitrary “carding” stop was a case of racial profiling. A decision has not yet been rendered in the case.

Green said Wednesday the OCPC has now decided to investigate his complaint against Ferguson, who is also a fellow city councillor. The Ward 3 councillor added he is “deeply concerned” it took almost three months for the oversight body to decide to formally probe his complaint.

“These comments … have been hanging over my head for the past five months,” he said in a statement, adding he felt Ferguson’s comments were “obvious violations” of the police board code of conduct.

Ferguson did not immediately respond to interview requests.

In June, during an interview about carding — what Hamilton police call street checks — Ferguson told the Bill Kelly Show “we have the one situation, and I can’t talk about it, but it involves a city councillor, and that’s going before adjudication. But it ended up in an officer being, having charges placed against him for doing his job.”

Green said he wants the OCPC investigation to result in a public finding of wrongdoing by Ferguson, as well as a “full public retraction and public apology.”

Administrator Lois Morin said via email the police board would not comment on the investigation, but noted Ferguson “will not be permitted to exercise his duties as a member of the Board” during the investigation.

Morin said board vice-chair Madeleine Levy will preside at meetings as acting chair for the time being.

Green has also complained to the city’s integrity commissioner about comments made by Ferguson — on a separate issue — that the Ward 3 councillor argues ran afoul of council code of conduct rules related to closed-door meetings.

That complaint relates to public comments about an alleged email threat against one or more councillors at Hamilton City Hall in early October.

Green said the city’s integrity commissioner, George Rust-D’Eye, has asked him for more information about the “impact and scope” of the allegations.