Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning to everyone here in the room. I hope you all had a good weekend.
I want to thank Mr. McLean for his words on his motion.
Like you, I have been here since September. With regard to the 2021 election, I personally think it was a good thing, because I got elected in 2021. It gave me the opportunity to be here, to sit across from all of you, to be your colleague and to be able to do the work of the government.
It was also a good year for me because it was the year I retired from the police department. The important word is “retired”. I was never kicked out. I never quit. I went through everything and I retired after serving for 28 years. It was a marriage of service for 28 years.
I learned a lot in the 28 years I was there. One of the things I learned is that the police are an independent agency. They function on their own. They're accountable to themselves and they're accountable to the police services board that governs them. They're not accountable to the government of the day or to the mayor. In the U.S., where the system is different, the mayor of the city dictates what the police service does.
However, in Canada, and especially in Ontario.... I cannot speak for other provinces in Canada, because policing is a provincial matter. Of course, the attorney general is the person in the province who's in charge of the police department, but each police service has a police services board that is made up of civilian, provincial and city-appointed personnel that governs what the police service does. It's not the mayor or the councillors in the city; it's the police services board, and it is important for us to know that fact.
The reason it's so important is that we, as a government, cannot tell the RCMP what to do. As a government, we cannot tell the OPP what to do. As a government, we cannot tell York Regional Police or Toronto police what to do, because they're independent.
The reason I'm bringing that up, and why it's so important that members across from me know this, is that because of those rules, we are not a banana republic country. Because we have independence, we are not a banana republic. Our head of state cannot dictate to the police service what to do, how to do it, how to investigate and who to investigate. It is crucial that we understand those things.
I'm not sure what backgrounds or what professions the honourable members across have come from, or whether they from the legal profession or some other profession that may not have had any dealings with the police department. Hopefully, none of them have been arrested before or had any dealings with the police service.
I had the misfortune last night of having an accident while driving to Ottawa. The misfortune for me— it was a minor misfortune—was hitting a deer on Highway 7. Unfortunately for the deer, it did not survive, but I was fortunate. I just have some aches and pains, but I'm here, and the reason I'm here is the important work we are doing here. That important work is why I want to be here to serve alongside you all.
The challenge for me last night was that I could not tell the police what to do. They still have to do their job. They came; they investigated and they gave me a police report.
I'm here. I'm lucky to be alive. I'm 64 years old and I've been driving for the last 46 years of my life in Canada. This was not my first accident. Hopefully it's my last accident. I don't want to have an accident.
It was my first time hitting a deer in my life. I never hit anything else except for a car, and thank God for that. I'm fortunate because my staff wanted me to bring something to Ottawa for this last week of Parliament, something that was important for them. I could not carry it on my motorcycle. Usually I come to Ottawa on a motorcycle. If I had been on a motorcycle last night, I might not be here with you this morning.
I'm so grateful that I'm here with you this morning. I was driving an SUV that sustained quite a lot of damage, but I'm here.
I haven't told my wife yet. You here are the first to know what happened last night. If I tell my wife, she's going to be upset at me because I was driving her car. That's the challenge for me, but I will tell her in my own way.