OTTAWA -- Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino said yesterday he has always known former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli to be an honourable man, and was surprised he has been "so vilified" in public comments about the Mounties' pension fund scandal.
But Commissioner Fantino said his professional friendship with Mr. Zaccardelli would not stand in the way of the OPP's review of the criminal investigation into improprieties in the pension plan.
The federal government asked the OPP on Monday to review the case file compiled by the Ottawa Police Service in the pension-fund investigation to determine whether a new criminal investigation is warranted.
Several members of the RCMP have said Mr. Zaccardelli tried to thwart the initial police investigation four years ago.
Commissioner Fantino has been a professional friend of Mr. Zaccardelli for many years, since Commissioner Fantino was the chief of the Toronto Police Service.
But Commissioner Fantino said he's not going to let his relationship with Mr. Zaccardelli stand between himself and his sworn duty as a police officer.
"I can assure you the OPP will do whatever we are called upon and required to do," he said.
David Brown, an independent investigator appointed by the federal government to revisit the pension-fund case, reported Friday that Mountie whistle-blowers had been unfairly treated when they came forward in 2003. He also criticized Mr. Zaccardelli for not initiating a criminal investigation in a timely fashion.
Mr. Brown said Mr. Zaccardelli's autocratic leadership style led many in the force to believe that saying anything that would displease the commissioner was a career killer.
Commissioner Fantino did not comment directly on Mr. Brown's conclusions about Mr. Zaccardelli, but said nobody's perfect.
"I would like to think there is goodness and commitment and dedication and honourable duty in every person. To the extent I have known commissioner Zaccardelli, that's how I've known him," Commissioner Fantino said.
Mr. Brown declined to comment yesterday on Commissioner Fantino's remarks.
Commissioner Fantino said the pension fund case - and allegations that Mr. Zaccardelli tried to cover up wrongdoing in the fund's administration - "are something I knew nothing about."
But in general, Commissioner Fantino said, "I can't really look at a man's career of 30-some odd years of dedicated, loyal, committed service and forget all of that and just focus on this one piece of his career.
"We are all part of humanity," he continued. "We have to come to grips with the fact humans are humans."
Commissioner Fantino said he's been surprised that in all the public discussion about the RCMP's problems, just one senior person, Mr. Zaccardelli, "would be so vilified. ... There is no charity now, no allowance."
Mr. Zaccardelli resigned in December after giving a parliamentary committee two different versions of what he knew and when about the Maher Arar case. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the government will soon appoint a new commissioner.