Cecilia Nasmith
Northumberland Today
Monday, July 09, 2007 - 09:00
Local News - The inconvenience caused by the recent Aboriginal Day of Action spurred many to criticize the OPP for not charging in with guns blazing, Commissioner Julian Fantino said in Cobourg last week. But the law includes an element of discretion, he added in an address to the Cobourg Rotary Club, and they felt a call to serve the greater good of all.
"At the end of the day, we didn't have a repeat of what happened at Caledonia, we didn't have a repeat of what happened at Oka, and we didn't spill a drop of blood," Commissioner Fantino stated.
The commissioner has also been criticized for speaking out bluntly but, as he pointed out, this is every Canadian citizen's right - and he didn't surrender that right in 1969 when he entered the field.
"I am driven by the sense of doing what's right because it is the right thing to do, and I really don't care about the popularity contest," he said. "If it's the truth, and it needs to be said, I intend to continue doing that."
The OPP are the police force of record for 313 of the province's 440-plus municipalities, with 165 detachments that answer about 750,000 calls for service each year. The OPP is not in competition against municipal forces, he said. But the fact is that they are required to provide a costing when asked to do so.
"It is never with the intent to put anyone out of business," he added. "In fact, there are some contracts I would like to give away."
Services range from traffic safety to sophisticated cross-border operations that fight such threats as organized crime, child pornography and terrorism.
"What happened in Scotland and the U.K. is another reminder about what might have happened if terrorist plans had succeeded - we can't be smug here, folks," he said. "We have seen what happened in Spain, London and, of course, the 9/11 situation in New York, and there are many others happening all the time.
"We have our challenges cut out for us, but what comforts me a great deal is that we have people of great talent and commitment who have the best in terms of resources, and who are today moving across borders and jurisdictions to work together and create a united front."
OPP officers value the public trust and strive to honour it, with its role in elevating the force's performance and expertise.
"There's probably no service more committed to making sure the public trust is not violated," Commissioner Fantino declared.
While police work is well paid (and should be, he said), "if that's all that you do it for, it won't work too well.
"I liken it to a vocation - you embrace the good, the bad and the ugly, and you touch people from birth to the grave and everything in between, and you've got to love it. Those are the things that drive me, that's why I do what I do, and I love every minute of it."
As far as he is concerned, there is no greater immediate concern to public safety than Highway Traffic Act infractions, with 3,000 Canadians dying on our highways each year.
"Three thousand of our citizens, friends, family members," he reiterated - "900, approximately, right here in this province."
Little wonder the commissioner wants to see traffic safety as the core responsibility of every police officer every day of the year, not just the odd weekend here and there.
He recounted the recent high-profile crashes -which he refuses to call accidents, since all are preventable.
The biggest three dangers are high speed (25 per cent of all highway fatalities are directly related to excessive speed, he said), failure to use seat belts and drunk driving.
"We need to change people's attitudes and bring back a new discipline that driving is a privilege, not a right, and we have responsibilities and accountabilities to go with that," he said.
Rigourous enforcement is the key, he said, which is why officers laid 5,358 speeding charges this Canada Day weekend compared to 4,165 over last year's holiday. This is one reason Commissioner Fantino is opting for the higher profile of black-and-white cars with red-and-blue LED emergency-light bars.
"We are going to be unrelenting," he vowed. "We are going to change people's attitudes because, at the end of the day, there is no greater safety risk."