by arthur Weinreb,
February 9, 2005
Yesterday, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced the appointment of Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino to be Ontario’s new emergency commissioner. Fantino replaces Dr. Jim Young who left the province to become an advisor to federal Public Security Minister, anne McLellan, presumably some sort of semi-retirement as we all know that the feds consider security of the country as somewhat less important than same sex marriage, the Kyoto accord, and ending the NHL strike.
Fantino’s new job will include monitoring the province’s emergency preparedness and taking charge in case of a natural disaster or terrorist attack.
There is no doubt that the long serving police officer and popular chief in Toronto is well qualified for the job. But Toronto residents should be upset. It appears that Dalton the Magician (now it’s a premium; now it’s a tax) has pulled another fast one on, if not the province, the city of Toronto.
a few months ago the Toronto Police Services Board voted not to renew Julian Fantino’s contract as chief of the country’s largest police service. Defeated by the Mayor David Miller’s lefties, the city is seeking a new chief, one that will give more priority to replacing police cars with bicycles and will not be hung up on persecuting the most "vulnerable" in society simply because they commit violent, gun-related crimes. The silent majority of law abiding Torontonians were outraged that the contract of the popular chief was not renewed.
The Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) consists of seven members. These seven are made up of the mayor of the city (or, as in this case, his designate), two Toronto City Councillors, a civilian appointed by Toronto City Hall, and three appointees of the provincial government. Currently the TPSB is two members short. Justice Hugh Locke is the only serving appointee of the province; Ontario’s other positions on the Board are vacant.
Had the Toronto Police Services Board been fully staffed, it would have been at least theoretically possible that the three provincially appointed members together with Councillor Case Ootes, would have voted to renew Fantino’s contract as Chief of the Toronto Police Service for a further term. This would have had the effect of making him unavailable to be appointed by McGuinty.
It seems that Dalton never got around to actually filling the Board’s vacancies. We all understand how busy he is, raising taxes, delisting medical services and pondering how to get more money out of hapless Ontarians, but his refusal to fill the vacancies set up the situation where it was certain that Julian Fantino was conveniently between positions.
Last fall, McGuinty did flirt with the idea of making the appointments to fill the vacancies but took some heat for what he proposed to do. McGuinty announced that he would make them but would defer to Mayor David Miller as to whom those persons should be. The Dalt was roundly criticized for not understanding the way things work. McGuinty was perceived to have thought that the Police Services Board was David Miller’s personal board, to fill as he wished. McGuinty was criticized for not understanding that the province has responsibility for appointments to the board. Had the legislation intended that David Miller make the provincial appointments to the TPSB, there would be no need for provincially appointed members. Dalton’s desire to allow Miller control over all the appointments to the Toronto Police Services Board apparently showed that he had little understanding of the how things work.
But then again, even Dalton isn’t as dumb as he looks. If you want to be cynical about the motives of Dalton McGuinty, you could easily come to the conclusion that by not making any appointments to the TPSB, McGuinty was ensuring that Fantino’s contract was not renewed so the Chief therefore available for the provincial position. and course it’s easy to be cynical of McGuinty; the guy whose epitaph will undoubtedly read, "any similarity between what I said and the truth is purely coincidental".
at best, McGuinty was just trying to placate David Miller, Toronto’s Chief Panhandler without it costing the province any more money. McGuinty no doubt yearned at worst, it was a direct manipulation of the TPSB to prevent the renewal of Julian Fantino’s contract.
Either way, the residents of Toronto need a new premier much more than they ever needed a new police chief.
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