Top cop fired after including OPP emails in lawsuit

The firing of a high-ranking provincial police officer waging a legal battle over the controversial appointment of Ontario’s top cop renewed accusations of political interference on Monday which the government has denied. Deputy commissioner Brad Blair has asked the courts to force the provincial ombudsman to investigate the hiring of Toronto police Supt. Ron Taverner, a longtime friend of Premier Doug Ford, as the new OPP commissioner. Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Sylvia Jones said the decision to fire Blair came from the public service. “There was zero political influence on this decision,” Jones said. “For me to start questioning my deputy minister would have been absolutely inappropriate.” Shortly after a press conference where Jones refused to divulge the reasons for the firing, she stood in the legislature to say Blair had been warned about releasing confidential OPP information late last year.

He then did it again through subsequent filings in his case involving the ombudsman, she said. Deputy minister Mario Di Tommaso wrote in a memo on Friday that he recommended the termination to the Public Service Commission because Blair had contravened “his legal and ethical responsibilities as a deputy commissioner and senior public servant.” Di Tommaso is also a former boss of Taverner’s and was part of the three-person hiring panel that selected Taverner as OPP commissioner.

Taverner, 72, initially did not meet the requirements listed for the commissioner position. The Ford government has admitted it lowered the requirements for the position to attract a wider range of candidates.