BY PAUL MORSE
Andre Marin says the SIU, a civilian police oversight agency, is a toothless tiger because of a culture of complacency and unwillingness to force police to follow the rules.
Marin, who released his report at Queen’s Park this afternoon, said the SIU is supposed to hold police officers to the same law as everyone else.
“I have concluded ... that these claims are just empty rhetoric and puffery in an organization that has lost its way,” he said.
The SIU has a faulty infrastructure and insufficient authority to do its job, he said, because both the SIU and its director are “kept on a very short leash by the Ministry of the Attorney General.”
The ombudsman also criticized the SIU’s lack of authority.
“SIU reports and significant policy issues are kept hidden from public view.”
The civilian SIU was created in 1990 by the province to deal with the problem of police investigating police in cases where civilian injury or death may have happened due to police actions. It also investigates serious sexual assaults involving police.
But Marin said the SIU’s internal culture has eroded its mission.
“The SIU has become so timid and fearful in its watchdog role that police oversight has hit rock bottom in Ontario.”
He said its “indolent and unenthusiastic involvement has become the norm, from the moment police notify them of an incident to the conclusion of the investigation.”
Marin the problem begins even earlier.
“We have found that the police rarely notify the SIU about incidents as quickly as they are supposed to by law, without any objection from the SIU.
“And when the SIU is alerted, it fails to respond with rigour and urgency, at times inexplicably overlooking the closest investigators and following routines that result in precious time being lost.”