OPP head calls for Taverner review
Interim chief files complaint to ensure no ‘political interference’ in appointment
The current head of the Ontario Provincial Police is seeking a review of “potential political interference” in the appointment of Toronto police Supt. Ron Taverner as incoming commissioner, filing a complaint late Tuesday requesting that Ontario’s ombudsman probe the hiring of his successor.
The 11th-hour move by interim com- missioner Brad Blair is the latest development in a roiling controversy over the appointment, and comes less than a week before Taverner, 72, a close friend of the Ford family, is scheduled to be sworn in as top cop of one of the largest police services in North America.
In a lengthy letter to ombudsman Paul Dubé Blair, Blair asks for Taverner’s installation to be delayed pending a review of the appointment and makes serious allegations against the Ford government.
That includes the claim that a staffer on Premier Doug Ford’s team specifically requested that the OPP purchase a “large camper type vehicle” that could be modified to certain specifications and that the request be “kept off the books.”
Ford’s officials did not return repeated messages from the Star before 10 p.m., but senior Conservative insiders, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations, expressed concern over Blair’s allegations.
Blair’s letter sounds the alarm about various aspects of Taverner’s appointment, saying the allegations in the letter “raise a legitimate question as to whether the OPP’s integrity has been compromised and whether the public can have confidence in and respect for the OPP going forward.”
Julian Falconer, the Toronto lawyer representing the current OPP head, said Blair decided to come forward with the bombshell complaint within the last week, “amidst a growing sea of controversy.” The 32-year OPP veteran felt compelled to speak out “by a belief that the (OPP) is an organization whose credibility is worth protecting.”
He knows his decision to question the hiring process of his successor means he will “now be under no minor light of scrutiny,” Falconer said.
Blair was named interim commissioner by the Progressive Conservative government, via an October order in council, and he also applied for the chief commissioner posting. In the letter, he states he was viewed by members of the OPP as a “front-runner candidate.”
The letter claims the decision to name Taverner as commissioner was made prior to a Wednesday cabinet meeting where the decision was said to have been made; that the job posting was “changed without convincing justification,” and that the hiring panel had “questionable authority” and the interview panel members changed at the last minute.
It also makes serious allegations about requests made by Ford when he came into office — that a “concerning history already exists between Premier Ford’s office and the OPP.”
According to the letter, that includes asking for specific police officers to be in his security detail — ones that Ford “would feel comfortable with.” Blair goes on to claim that Ford requested a face-to-face meeting over the issue, and said that if then-commissioner Vince Hawkes would not address the issue, “perhaps a new commissioner would.”
“Ultimately, the premier’s request was approved and implemented by the OPP,” according to the letter.
The letter also claims that a Ford staffer specifically requested that the OPP purchase a “large camper type vehicle and have it modified to the specifications the premier’s office would provide us.” According to the letter, there was a request that these costs be “kept off the books.”
Such a request, asking for “monies spent to be hidden from the public record” is at minimum a violation of the Ontario government’s financial policies, the letter said.
Blair also claims he met with Taverner in a Swiss Chalet on Dec. 2 to discuss the transition. He claims Taverner told him that on Nov. 20, following his final interview for the job, he ran into a reporter, who accused him of having just left Ford’s office.
“Supt. Taverner informed me that he asked the reporter to hold off on any story in exchange for providing this reporter with a first interview in the near future,” according to the letter.
Blair’s letter goes on to say that he does not know who that reporter is, but named a specific journalist who was believed to have done a recent interview with Taverner.
In the letter, Blair says OPP members “have shared with me their concerns that the process was unfair and their feeling that the independence of the OPP is now called into question.”
“The officers know the consequences to come: if the police are to command public confidence and active co-operation, they must have unfettered confidence of the people of Ontario. That is, the concern of political interference runs counter not only to the principles of a democratic society but also to fully effective policing,” Blair writes in his letter.
In the wake of controversy over the government’s appointment of Taverner as commissioner, Ford has admitted he did not recuse himself from cabinet when Taverner was approved but said he “had zero influence” over the decision.
Ford has insisted there “was no better choice” than his family friend, but he maintained that he “didn’t know that decision until the day it was made.”
“A transparent choice, by the way, that I wasn’t involved in whatsoever,” the premier said last Wednesday, stressing that morale is low at the OPP and Taverner will boost the force’s esprit de corps.
Taverner, who has 51 years with the Toronto Police Service, is a long-time unit commander in charge of Etobicoke divisions.
Taverner was also close to the premier’s late brother, former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, and was often at Ford family barbecues and had informal breakfast meetings with both Rob and Doug Ford.
Critics within government have raised concerns about the Ford family relationship with Taverner, chief among them the fact that it is the OPP that is often tasked with investigations involving the government.
He succeeds Hawkes, 56, who retired earlier this year.
Taverner was unanimously selected by a panel that included Steve Orsini, head of the Ontario Public Service, and newly appointed deputy minister Mario Di Tommaso, who is a former Toronto police officer and Taverner’s former boss.
In a recent TV interview, Taverner said he had never before sought an OPP job before he applied to be commissioner.
Blair’s concerns come after another former OPP commissioner, Chris Lewis, voiced his concerns about Taverner’s hiring, telling CP24 that “the fix was in.”
“There’s old relationships there, we all know it, and I think it was a travesty that this occurred … I don’t think it’s good for the OPP — and I don’t think it was a good decision on the part of government whatsoever.”