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From the Editor

Bring back Bro

by Judi McLeod

May 25, 2004

The best thing that could happen to the beleaguered Toronto Police association would be the return of its feisty former president, Craig Bromell.

Bromell, fondly known as just "Bro" left barely four months ago. That’s when the Toronto Police association (TPa) not only began to unravel, it completely fell apart. Without the strong leadership of Craig Bromell, the association became a rudderless ship. It became that way not just because of Rick McIntosh, the man who replaced Bromell as president, but because under a cloud of scandal, the association was laid wide open to all of those who harbor a longtime agenda against it. Those who would hint that all cops are corrupt even before the handful of officers charged with misconduct have been tried.

The truth of life in Metropolitan Toronto is that a clear majority of the 5,300 Toronto police who make up the rank and file are always more vulnerable to a mainline media that doesn’t play fair when it comes to the badly demoralized thin blue line.

With the day’s screaming newspaper headlines about police corruption being read in the coffee shops, Officer Y still has to get out there and execute his or her job. The criminal element is still waiting it out in the alleyways of our city and pumping paralyzing bullets into the mothers of handicapped children. Officers pounding the daily beat, allowing the rest of us to get on with our lives, have little say in how TPa president Rick McIntosh should conduct himself on the job. all they can hope is that the association will be squarely behind them when controversy comes to call.

and given the political environment, controversy does come to call when you’re a Toronto police officer.

The big picture of upholding the law as a career in Toronto is a bleak one. It will be two years ago this fall when the entire police force was accused of racism on the front pages of the big-selling Toronto Star.

Star reporters who were awarded for "investigative" journalism by Governor-general adrienne Clarkson have kept the issue alive. In the opinion of Canadafreepress.com, it’s only a matter of time before the police issue of racism resurfaces in the Star.

It is not that racism does not exist. It does. But it’s never so convenient for those sincerely trying to track it down as to be found festering in an entire police force, any more than it is to be found in the management of an opening day baseball club.

and as long as powerful newspapers are chasing down police forces and baseball clubs, the real racists are out there getting a free ride.

To my way of thinking, the "get-to-the-point" Bromell is a peculiar breed. a genuine diamond in the rough, he refuses to bow down to the dictates of the politically correct, spouts off whatever he thinks no holds barred and because of all this, is always juicy fodder for a politically correct media.

as a newspaper editor who unabashedly maintains a pro-police editorial stance, I have personally met Bromell.

Once having managed to get into his office for an interview, he showed me myriad media clippings against him. The clippings were stacked mile-high, and he asked me what I thought of them.

"and this is only the criticism of the local media," he wryly explained, again asking me what I made of his vast unpopularity.

My reply ran along the theory that he was there to please not the media and politicians, but John Q. Public and the 7,000 association members.

Not long after the interview, Bromell announced he would be retiring. That was the first time. Changing his mind, he decided to stay the course, before retiring a second time and making if final.

Even though he had cited health and family for making his second retirement final, his departure was destined to leave an unfillable hole.

With the media and self-serving politicians biting at his rear, it could never have been easy being the politically incorrect head of the largest police union in Canada.

On the personal side, there were too many missed school concerts, and too many nights making it home after the children were in bed.

Yet, when he on the job, no matter what was up, Craig Bromell always put the association, or the rank and file, first.

That’s why ever since I heard that the return of Craig Bromell to the TPa is not impossible, I’ve been rooting: "Bring back Bro."

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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