National Post (National Edition)
Revisiting Taverner hire won’t change Ford’s mind
The lawyer Julian Falconer, on behalf of his client Brad Blair, the deposed interim commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, is pushing the proverbial boulder uphill, with all that entails.
Falconer is trying to force the Ontario ombudsman Paul Dubé to take a big look at the curious process that resulted in the hiring of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s good friend Ron Taverner as the next OPP commissioner. Falconer says the process looks stinky, as indeed it does, and after Dubé twice turned down his plea to investigate the matter (he said he doesn’t have the authority and that, besides, he couldn’t direct the government on who to appoint and couldn’t stop the Taverner appointment in any case), he turned to the courts, hoping Dubé would be forced to act.
That question hasn’t yet been heard, let alone decided, but Falconer was in Divisional Court in Toronto on Monday, trying to get an expedited date for the argument.
He failed to persuade Ontario Superior Court Judge Herman Wilton-siegel that there was such urgency, though the judge did agree he’s “concerned” the matter be heard in a timely matter.
There is not a large institutional or government appetite to investigate the Taverner hiring.
And lest you forget, something sure looks fishy about it: The job advertisement was up only two days before it was pulled, with the qualifications for applying magically lowered so as to allow someone of Taverner’s rank to give it a whirl; there have been various reports that Ford was looking to find a soft landing for his friend and that Taverner was offered (and rejected) the chance to run the government cannabis store.
All of this was reported by others, but sources of mine confirmed it.
Just for good measure, the Monday Globe and Mail ran a story featuring delicious pictures of Taverner and Ford socializing together in the weeks and months before Taverner’s appointment — and one of them also featured former staff superintendent, and now Ford’s deputy community safety minister, Mario Di Tommaso, who was part of the allegedly independent committee that interviewed candidates for the job.
Di Tommaso was also Taverner’s direct superior at Toronto police, where they both worked for decades, Taverner as the superintendent in the very area where the Ford family lives and where their family business is located.
Now, Ontario integrity commissioner David Wake has agreed to have a look at a small slice of the hiring, this upon receiving a formal complaint from NDP MPP Kevin Yarde, who alleges that Premier Ford contravened the Integrity Act by participating in the cabinet decision to appoint Taverner to the $250,000 job last November.
As the controversy over the appointment was raging, Ford said publicly he didn’t need to recuse himself because the decision had been made by “an independent panel” and he’d had “zero influence.”
But the bigger questions — whether there was political interference in the hiring process and has the OPP’S independence been compromised — remain an oozing sore that no one much wants to examine.
As important, of course, is the question of whether any of it would make a difference to this premier or his government.
Even if Dubé were to suddenly acquiesce or be ordered to inquire into the hiring process; even if he issued a report saying that, yes, the process was tainted by political interference; even if Wake were to determine that Ford should have recused himself from any discussion about Taverner’s appointment, my own suspicion is that none of it would change a thing.
Ford and his Community Safety Minister Sylvia Jones have repeatedly said publicly that Taverner was chosen by an “independent commission,” “an independent commissioner” and “the independent hiring committee.”
Er, which was it?
And after the integrity commissioner announced that he would conduct an inquiry, Ford said, “Let the review take place. And I can tell you one thing, once the review gets done, he’s (Taverner’s) going to be the best commissioner the OPP has ever seen.”
In other words, it appears the premier is determined to install Taverner.
Thus does Falconer’s task change from pushing a boulder uphill to can you shame the shameless?
Two final points: How is it that Blair is left to finance this probably hopeless but important exercise by himself ?
(Yes, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the commissioner’s job, but his concerns for the OPP appear genuine and much broader than any personal axe he may have to grind.)
And if you doubt its importance, cast your mind back to the days of the Dalton Mcguinty government and later the Kathleen Wynne government.
Off the top of my large but small-brained head, I can remember OPP probes into the gas plants scandal, wind farms records, ORNGE air ambulance and alleged Elections Act violations. The simple truth is that governments, being composed of people, may cross lines, make mistakes and even act illegally and in Ontario, when they allegedly do, it’s the OPP that investigates.
That’s why the police need to be independent and free of political interference, at the very least of the overt, guys-get-my-good-buddy-ajob sort.