Public Safety Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2010

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

If I could just ask one question, Chief Blair, does the chair of the Police Services Board involve himself or herself in the operations of the Toronto Police Service?

[Chief William Blair]

No. In fact, he's precluded by the Police Services Act of Ontario from engaging in any operations. Operations are my responsibility, but we are subject to civilian governance and oversight through a police services board, and I'm accountable to that civilian authority for the way in which I do my job.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Thank you very much, and we're very happy that you do.

If I remember correctly, the OCCOPS, the Ontario...perhaps you could let the folks know what that acronym stands for. It's the Ontario Civil Commission on Policing Services, I believe.

[Chief William Blair]

The Ontario Civilian Commission on Policing Services, yes.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Any person in Ontario, anywhere, and to any police station, can make a complaint verbally, in writing, or by telephone, and that complaint must be acted upon and investigated. That complaint goes directly to the civilian commission on policing in Ontario?

[Chief William Blair]

No, it doesn't go directly any more, sir; the law was changed in Ontario. In fact, I agree--every complaint must be investigated--but about two years ago the Province of Ontario enacted a new office, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, and the complaints go to that individual. There's a further adjudication responsibility that OCCOPS has for determining how those complaints are resolved by the chief of police.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

I apologize.

[Chief William Blair]

That's quite all right, sir.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

It has been 10 years since I was involved in policing.

I think the people at home need to know just a little bit more about how you prepared for this. You mentioned at the beginning of your testimony--and Deputy Commissioner Beechey can tell me from the OPP side of things--that the officers who were assigned to this duty, as you prepared for this operation, were given about two days of specialized training for this event.

[Chief William Blair]

They're all trained and qualified police officers, but in preparation for this event, we first of all cancelled all their leaves, because we needed all hands on deck. Everybody had to work--everybody working in Toronto. It was not only the Toronto police officers, but all of the police officers who were coming to help us.

First of all, they were all given two online training requirements that they had to complete successfully, and then at least one full day of operational training. Most of the online work pertained to their legal authorities. We wanted to ensure that our police officers knew the limits of their authorities and that they knew how to work together in maintaining public safety.

So we trained together, and even in preparation for the event, we gathered most of those resources in the week leading up to the summit site. So although there was at least one full day of formal training, they were working collaboratively together for the five or six days before the site.

Training was very important to us. We wanted to make sure that our people knew how to work together, that our communication systems worked, that there was consistency in our policies and operational directives, and that there was a very clear line of communication and a clear line of command.

One of the challenges in policing an event of this magnitude is ensuring that your people maintain their ranks, maintain their discipline, and do their job in a way that is lawful. So we trained our people quite relentlessly in preparation for this event.

Quite frankly, we know, because events like the G-20 have happened in other places, that public complaints are an inevitable result. Civil suits are an inevitable result. Calls for public inquiries are also an inevitable result. Quite frankly, calls for the resignation or firing of the chief of police are usually an inevitable result. We prepared our people for those complaints. We took every prudent step we were able to in order to ensure that our people knew their jobs, that they were properly supervised and properly managed, and did their job according to the rule of law.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Deputy Commissioner, please.

[D/Commr Larry Beechey]

I might add, the same as Chief Blair said, that we brought our people in and we brought in our supervisors an extra day early, and also our logistical people, to set up and to know the whole operation around the G-8. Then we brought the rest of our members in for a full day of training. Also, it was all consistent with the online training.

I would like to mention that we had three full exercises leading up to this, for every venue and every organization. As well, our public order units that we knew would be working together.... We had two other police agencies working with us in Huntsville and we knew, given the intelligence we had, that we would probably be down in Toronto and that we all needed to work together, so we did that with our public order units. As well, several police agencies around Ontario do that on a regular basis, as we do in Toronto, so we're used to working with each other. We know each other and we're prepared.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Beechey.

Thank you, Mr. Norlock.

We'll come back to Mr. Kania, please.

[Andrew Kania, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Chief Blair, you indicated that you had I think nine months to plan this.

[Chief William Blair]

Approximately, sir, yes.

[Andrew Kania, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

When you first became aware of this, I think you indicated that you started planning in advance with the anticipation that this would be happening. Is that accurate?

[Chief William Blair]

There are two things, sir.

First of all, G-8 meetings have been held in Canada previously and in other jurisdictions, and usually demonstrations ensue in the large urban areas close to them. It was going to be either in Ottawa or in Toronto. We began preparing and planning with our partners in the OPP and the RCMP for what we believed were likely going to be demonstrations in Toronto. That happened very early in the planning process.

In addition to that, when there was some indication, some discussion, about the possibility of a G-20, we monitored public statements in the newspapers and the speculation that was taking place. Frankly, recognizing the rather tight planning window available to us, we began planning for that eventuality.

[Andrew Kania, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

When you began planning for that eventuality, did you take into account different possible locations where it might be held within the GTA?

[Chief William Blair]

Yes.

[Andrew Kania, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Was one of those locations the CNE grounds?

[Chief William Blair]

There was some discussion of that as a possibility.

[Andrew Kania, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

So you started planning for the CNE grounds as a possibility.

[Chief William Blair]

We gave it consideration, but frankly, the planning did not proceed very far before it became apparent where we were going to be.

[Andrew Kania, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

You saw that as one potential and reasonable place where it could be held.

[Chief William Blair]

It was a place that might be considered.