July 22, 2008
Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino clearly acted inappropriately last summer when he threatened to "destroy" the "reputation" of a native leader who had blocked Highway 401 and a main rail line. As the senior officer in charge of a huge and powerful law enforcement agency, the commissioner should have behaved with more restraint and decorum.
If the protester had to be warned of anything, he should have been told that he risked serious legal consequences for his actions -- not the blackening of his name by a trusted public official.
But to agree that Fantino stepped over the line of wise conduct does not mean that the critics now calling for his firing -- including Ontario's New Democrats -- are anywhere near right.
Their demand is misplaced because it ignores the serious and urgent threat to public safety that the commissioner was trying to -- and apparently did -- end. Imprudent though some of his words were, they broke no laws. And who would jump to be in the hot seat he occupied that day?
Cast your mind back to June 29, 2007, the first Aboriginal Day of Action in Canada and see what Fantino was up against. Across the country native leaders held peaceful protests and information sessions. But in eastern Ontario a small group of Mohawk protesters led by Shawn Brant said they were armed and set up blockades.
"We've made no secret that we have guns within this camp,'' Brant told reporters, adding that "force will be met with force'' if the police got in the protesters' way.
The protests quickly led to the closure of the 401 and the main rail line between Montreal and Toronto. Traffic was diverted, clogging backroads. The consequences of this could have been lethal had a rural resident on one of those roads required emergency help from an ambulance or fire truck. Even more to the point, there was an inherent danger in allowing a mob of people, who said they were armed and ready to act violently, to remain unchecked and at liberty. There is a word for such a situation, where the laws made by democratically elected leaders are ignored and peaceful entreaties by law enforcement officials are scorned: It is anarchy.
When the situation got tense last June, when Canada's busiest highway and one of its most travelled rail lines were blocked, Fantino did not respond with force -- as the OPP did in 1995 at Ipperwash Provincial Park where native protester Dudley George was killed by an OPP bullet. Nor did Fantino leave ordinary citizens to fend for themselves -- as OPP were accused of doing during violent native protests in Caledonia in 2006.
He got tough -- verbally. He used brinkmanship. He issued threats, including to come down hard on Brant, a warning Brant's lawyer has implausibly interpreted as a death threat.
We will never know how far Fantino would have gone had Brant remained immovable. But the barricades came down. Brant turned himself in. Peace was restored and nobody, not protesters, police or members of the public, got hurt. Why micromanage now?
Yes, questions do remain about who ordered a wire tap of Brant's phone while Fantino was talking to him. They must be answered because it is as important for police to abide by the laws of the land as anyone else. That said, it is only fair to acknowledge the stressful, difficult situations in which the OPP are placed as they deal with an increasing number of aboriginal protests and occupations, activities that have led to violence, injury and death.
Fantino may not merit a medal for some of the things he said on a strained summer evening. He surely does not deserve to be fired. And on balance, he is owed public thanks for getting a tough job done.