Police fume over pot shop conundrum
Officers can’t nab owners because of resource woes, says Doug Kirkland
A Citizen report Nov. 18 quotes Judge Norm Boxall on the Ottawa Police Service’s failure to charge the owners and backers of illegal marijuana distribution shops.
Sentencing a young budtender from a Rideau Street shop, he said: “I just don’t understand how the police cannot shut down a dispensary.”
I understand the context of his statements, but the judge, despite his distinguished legal background, has the wrong target.
Judge Boxall has always shown respect for the police in his former work as a defence counsel, and police have always had respect for his position and integrity. I understand his frustration on the specific case before him.
But he also should be aware the target should not be the rank-and-file police officer, nor the command structure of the police service. It sticks deep in the craw of every working police officer to not bring the real profiteers in illegal marijuana dispensaries to answer in the courts.
What is true? Ottawa Police do not have the resources now to do the proper depth investigations needed for a reasonable prospect of a conviction of the real villains: the owners and backers of the shops.
The real target of judicial scorn should be one tier above the police. Look to the Ottawa Police Services Board, city council and the mayor. Six years of cutting funding; not replacing retirees with at least the same number of recruits; creating gaps in the seniority chain; and forcing reductions in service levels onto the community — including not just drug investigations but gangs, frauds, traffic enforcement and all other special units.
In news reports, the politicians express their disappointment over the police services. Yet, they — and they alone — are responsible for the situation of understaffing and the efficiency gaps. The politicians believe they know how to run a police service.
Clearly, from all the staffing problems and demands to fix the panic “cause of the day,” they do not know. What they do know is how to financially squeeze the service to the point it becomes inefficient and ineffective. But they take no responsibility for their own actions — on that score, they are very effective.
Judge Boxall, please shift your focus to the real reasons this city’s police service is not able to do what you are asking.
Believe me, Your Honour, members of the police service regret the same things, and more.