Alberta has a chance to get it right when it forms new police force
Meet Trevor Kathnelson. He’s one of Durham Region’s finest, sworn to serve and protect the good people of Oshawa, Clarington, Scucog and other upstanding Ontario communities east and northeast of Toronto. On the afternoon of April 29, 2023, according to an agreed statement of facts, Kathnelson consumed (ahem) two drinks with a friend at the Thirsty Goose public house in Port Hope, shortly thereafter becoming “involved in a single motor vehicle accident,” the scene of which he fled in his “heavily damaged” pickup truck, which he then abandoned at a gas station, scampering to a nearby hotel where he telephoned the friend with whom he had (cough, cough) two drinks at the Thirsty Goose to come pick him up.
Kathnelson also agreed that while awaiting rescue by his drinking buddy at the ironically named Comfort Inn, he lied to a police officer who was investigating the accident. He said he wasn’t Trevor Kathnelson, and apparently he was believed. And then, to add a bit of spice to the gumbo, he filed a false report with the Ontario Provincial Police claiming that his truck had been stolen.
On Aug. 23, 2023, Kathnelson pleaded guilty to public mischief — he stood accused of considerably more serious crimes — and walked out of the Cobourg courthouse with a $2,000 fine and six months of probation. His police career, naturally, was over.
I’m kidding. This is Canada. We don’t fire police officers. “Kathnelson shall be demoted to the rank of Third Class Constable for one year,” Ontario Provincial Police adjudicator M.P.B. Elders ruled, as the Toronto Sun reported this week.
You’re upset, I can tell. This officer puts his life on the line for the good people of Durham Region every day. He’s presumably sober while performing his duties. He was off the clock at Thirsty Goose. And it was only a single-car accident, for heaven’s sake.
Well you can relax. Adjudicator Elders has a heart. “After spending one year at the rank of Third Class Constable,” he ruled, absent any recommendation otherwise, Kathnelson “shall be promoted to the rank of Second Class Constable.”
And a year after that, Adjudicator Elders decreed, Kathnelson “shall be promoted to the rank of First Class Constable,” right back to where he was before all this unfortunate business occurred.
Nice work if you can get it, am I right?
If we didn’t for some reason tolerate the outrageous kid-gloves treatment that law-breaking police officers receive in this country — and in Ontario especially — we would call it intolerable.
Last month, Windsor, Ont., police Inspector Ed Armstrong pleaded guilty to discreditable conduct in respect of his making inappropriate comments, some sexual, to female colleagues, for 18 freaking years. Armstrong was demoted for a year, his reinstatement to inspector guaranteed.
“An Ottawa police officer who wielded a knife in a 2020 domestic dispute while threatening to kill his ex has been demoted for two years,” the Ottawa Citizen reported late last year in the case of officer Yourik Brisebois. “(Brisebois) had been found guilty ... of uttering death threats to a woman and possessing a kitchen knife for the purpose of committing an offence.”
Imagine calling the Ottawa police as your partner attacks you, knowing Brisebois might show up.
Of Sarnia, Ont., police Constable Sean Van Vlymen, Justice Mark Poland said last month “Mr. Van Vlymen, throughout his time as a police officer, has undoubtedly ... seen the trail of devastation that taking to the roadway with alcohol in one’s system can result in.”
And yet, Van Vlymen rocked up to the Blue Water Bridge in Port Hope, Mich., across the river from Sarnia on March 31 last year, failed a breathalyzer test, and was unceremoniously fired as he should have been.
I’m kidding, again. We don’t fire police officers.
Van Vlymen was assigned to “non-operational duties,” the Sarnia Observer reported. This was only reasonable, you will agree, considering he was legally prohibited from operating a motor vehicle without an alcohol-interlock device installed. As if we’re going to put those in every police cruiser! Expensive!
Last year, Riyaz Hussein of the Toronto Police Service (TPS) was “temporarily demoted” from superintendent to inspector after settling into his cups at the bar at TPS headquarters — that’s right, there was a bar at the police station; it has since been shuttered, because Toronto cops clearly can’t hold their booze — and then crashing his car into another. Hussein had previously been in charge of the TPS disciplinary-hearing process.
“The higher rank we are, the harder we fall,” retired deputy chief of South Simcoe Police Services Robin Mcearly-downer told Hussein, hilariously, in her disciplinary judgment on the matter.
Canada’s lackadaisical approach to punishing impaired drivers is a disgrace, top to bottom, but it’s abundantly clear that “rank” ranks above just about everything else when it comes to getting away with it. On the other side of the coin, the number of criminal cases that get tossed in this country on grounds of police dishonesty or misconduct is astonishing. And the officers involved almost never face punishment for their misconduct. It’s just considered a bad day at the office.
Alberta’s government tabled legislation on Wednesday that would (after decades of discussion) create a provincial police force. It’s unclear as yet how this force would coexist with the RCMP, which is currently contracted to serve as Alberta’s provincial police force. The government has said it doesn’t intend to replace the Mounties outright. But any Canadian government proposing to create a new police service of any kind has a huge opportunity to get it right. As it stands we’re caught between the unwanted prospect of police operating at politicians’ daily whims and the reality of police that has nominal civilian oversight, but which is in fact operates with near impunity. It’s intolerable in a democratic society.
Get it right, Alberta. Please.