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Robert Mitchell
Police complaints
commissioner
Robert Mitchell
during 80s when NDP was in opposition. He later became Minister
of Justice and ran flak for Roy Romanow during the cover-ups
of Martensville and Klassen Satanic ritual abuse cases.
Province aims to overhaul police complaints procedures
James Wood, The StarPhoenix,
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
REGINA -- After a string of
high-profile cases, the provincial government is making fundamental
changes to the way complaints against police in the province
are handled.
On Monday in the legislature,
Justice Minister Frank Quennell introduced for second reading
The Police Amendment Act, 2005, which, if passed, will see the
creation of a new five-person Public Complaints Commission with
expanded powers, including having direct control over the investigation
into any public complaint against the police, including criminal
matters.
The commission will be required
to have at least one First Nations person and one Metis person
in its membership as well as First Nations and Metis representation
at the investigator level.
"What we want to do is
provide a police complaints process that everybody in the province
-- First Nations, Metis people and police officers -- can have
confidence in," Quennell told reporters.
The changes to the system are
based on recommendations made by the Commission on First Nations
and Metis People and Justice Reform and the inquiry into the
death of Neil Stonechild last year.
That inquiry found that two
Saskatoon police officers had Stonechild in their custody on
the night he froze to death in 1990. That led to the firing of
the two officers last year.
Quennell said that situation
provides a good example of why the system needed to be changed.
"That family had no confidence
and I think they were correct to have no confidence that the
Saskatoon Police Service would address their concerns about the
officers who were allegedly addressing the death of Neil Stonechild,"
said Quennell.
Two other Saskatoon officers
were fired and convicted of unlawful confinement after a Native
man, Darrell Night, said they had abandoned him on the outskirts
of the city in freezing weather.
In the current system overseen
by The Police Act, 1990, the police complaints investigator is
an independent civilian who reviews public complaints about municipal
police services, usually involving issues such as discreditable
conduct, neglect of duty, improper disclosure of information
and abuse of authority.
Criminal complaints against
officers are handled by police, with investigations often referred
to other departments.
The changes come after consultations
with the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, Metis representatives,
provincial police chiefs and police unions.
The legislation will also see
changes that allow the commission to complete investigations
against a member or chief of police even after that person resigns.
The commission will be appointed
by the provincial cabinet and is expected to be in place sometime
this year.
The government appointed former
justice minister Bob Mitchell to the post of police complaints
investigator last year in anticipation of a major revamping of
the system.
jwood@thesp.com
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Revamped complaints process
adds credibility, Mitchell says
Jamie Komarnicki, The StarPhoenix,
January 28, 2005
Changing the way complaints
about municipal police officers are investigated will be a "giant
leap forward," says the man put in charge of revising the
system.
Bob Mitchell, a former provincial
justice minister, described the proposed model as "approachable
and credible" for the aboriginal community and the Saskatchewan
public at large. He was a panel speaker at a conference on aboriginal
people and the criminal justice system put on by the University
of Saskatchewan college of law.
According to Mitchell, Indian
and Metis people have little confidence in the current provincial
complaints system and are not using it to bring concerns forward
regarding municipal police forces. He also said "people
are very skeptical about police investigating themselves."
The relationship between the
Saskatoon Police Service and the aboriginal community was subjected
to intense scrutiny during last year's inquiry into the 1990
freezing death of Neil Stonechild and the subsequent firing of
constables Brad Senger and Larry Hartwig after police chief Russ
Sabo found them unsuitable for duty in the wake of the Stonechild
inquiry report.
And in 2001, Saskatoon police
constables Dan Hatchen and Ken Munson were convicted of unlawful
confinement and later fired for dropping an aboriginal man, Darrell
Night, on the outskirts of the city in freezing weather in 2000.
Mitchell was named the provincial
police complaints investigator in July of last year with a mandate
to revamp the police complaints process. It was a key recommendation
in the final report of the Commission on First Nations and Metis
People and Justice Reform released last June.
Under the new model, the decision
to investigate a complaint will be made by a five-person commission
comprised of people drawn from the First Nations community, the
Metis community and the overall Saskatchewan population, rather
than by the judgment of a single investigator.
According to Mitchell, staff
will increase to six additional full-time employees, including
three investigators.
"We'll be opening an office
in Saskatoon very shortly," he said, "and two of our
new investigators will be located in the Saskatoon office."
People will be able to lodge
complaints at the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations'
(FSIN) special investigations unit and the Department of Justice
as well as at the police station, said Mitchell.
Under the new system, commission
investigators and outside police services will handle the complaints,
while the police department named in the complaint will only
investigate routine matters that involve little controversy.
FSIN vice-chief Lawrence Joseph,
who also spoke at the conference, said the existing structure
has "failed us miserably," and aboriginal people have
been turning in large numbers to their own special investigations
unit to lodge complaints.
"We have to retain our
own facilities, that are First Nations friendly, because the
people that are out there are afraid to use the existing systems.
They don't know they're there, and they've been conditioned to
believe, and conditioned to know, that nothing ever happens,"
he said.
He does hold some hope for
the new complaints system.
"It is a major step and
something that is direly needed," he said. "It's a
step that we as First Nations people have to watch very cautiously."
Joseph renewed his call for
a First Nations justice system that would include a provincewide
tribal police force and said he hopes to put forward a framework
by the end of the year.
Sabo also spoke at the conference
about efforts by his force to improve aboriginal and police relations.
He said the force is actively recruiting people from the First
Nations and Metis communities into front-line duty in the police
service. Sabo said the aboriginal liaison unit, increased to
two members in the last five years, works closely with the aboriginal
community, and the police commission has upgraded cultural sensitivity
training at the college where officers train.
"We will learn from our
mistakes and try to do better," said Sabo.
"This new complaints process
has a lot of potential," he said. "And I think our
police service has a lot of potential."
Mitchell hopes the process
for the revised complaints system can receive cabinet approval
and pass through the legislature in the coming spring session.
"The process will be more
transparent, it will be more user friendly, and finally the problem
of police investigating their fellow officers will be a thing
of the past in sensitive or controversial complaints."
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
