Sunday, 18 December 2011

Oversight Overdone

This week, the Ontario Ombudsman has once again proven that he's incapable to leaving well enough alone when it comes to a public agency which he headed in the past:

Ombudsman Looks at SIU

In his report, entitled, Oversight Undermined, Andre Marin takes aim at the Ontario Attorney General and the manner in which it has handled the ongoing, and often quite intense, friction between the Province's police leaders (including unions) and the current SIU Director, Ian Scott. Of course, it may be worthwhile to have some considered examination of the operation of the SIU and the specific matters that appear to be problematic around suspect officer notes and the nature of the legal representation of officers involved with incidents that fall within the ambit of the SIU.

Of course, the present Ontario Ombudsman is a masterful showman and certainly relishes the 'limelight' in a way that seems to ensure that his desire for publicity will not be blunted by reason, nor by the reality that the Ontario Special Investigations Unit is ultra vires to his office.



However, the Ontario Ombudsman has no clearly defined mandate to look at the SIU. His office is not legislated to include policing matters. It is particularly inappropriate for the current Ontario Ombudsman to concern himself with this brief since he was himself the Director of the SIU during an equally troubled period. Mr. Marin should in all conscience leave the presenting matters to others who have a legitimate role to play in the resolution of these issues. The Ombudsman would be well to review the decision of Mr. Justice Binnie in the case of R. v. Regan where he speaks about the function of a "Minister of Justice" and the qualities that should be demonstrated. It is painfully obvious that Mr. Marin a degree of animus to his broadside against the Ontario Government in the context of the SIU. This alone should disqualify his office from further engagement with this particular file.

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