THUNDER BAY – The president of the Thunder Bay Police Association (TBPA) believes the public will be satisfied with some of the new laws for policing in Ontario.
April 1 marks the beginning of the Community Safety and Policing Act, which was passed in 2019.
The new act contains a rule allowing police chiefs to suspend officers without pay in some circumstances.
“The discipline process for officers is revamped,” explained Colin Woods, TBPA president.
“It will be fairer to officers and the service. On the public side of it, they will appreciate the transparency and the accountability this act addresses.”
Under the old Police Services Act, the only circumstance in which a police officer wouldn't get paid while suspended is if they were both convicted of an offence and sentenced to imprisonment.
An officer who was convicted of a crime but didn't have to serve time behind bars would remain suspended with pay unless and until they were fired through police disciplinary procedure.
If the officer appealed their termination, they could remain suspended for months, even years.
“The new act deals specifically with cases that are very severe,” explained police Chief Darcy Fleury in an earlier interview with Dougall Media.
“The officer has to have committed a very serious criminal offence in order to have the rules kick in.
“It won’t be the lower-level discipline processes that we need to go through but rather at the higher end where the person is accused or convicted of doing something very serious and is criminal in nature.”
The act will be in place a full five years after it was passed, which included a lengthy process involving several municipalities, advocates and police services and the filing of more than two dozen regulations to accompany the law.
Woods confirmed his membership was consulted back in 2017 and added the goal was to get the issue of suspension without pay on the table and help clarify it in the fairest way possible.
“We gave our input, the government listened to that and what resulted was a fair process,” Woods noted. “For example, if an officer is involved in an SIU investigation, they can’t be suspended without pay if it's an ongoing investigation that may lead to charges. There are provisions that protect officers and allow them to have an income.”
Woods added there are also rules for officers to use specific equipment for the job they do, and training will be standardized for every police service right across Ontario.
