Incoming OPP commissioner Chris Lewis -- who will replace Julian Fantino on Aug. 1 -- would have us believe that nothing needs to change in Caledonia and area.
There's no standoff, says the OPP officer in charge of the Caledonia file, between natives who have occupied the disputed Douglas Creek Estates (DCE) since February 2006 and police or townspeople.
"I mean, it's a very peaceful community," he said this week. "We're not having any problems there."
So peaceful, so calm, so law-abiding that Lewis says: "There's nothing, really, that I want to change ..."
Really? The deputy commissioner is quite happy with the status quo of illegal "smoke shacks" selling contraband cigarettes on both native and public land all around the Caledonia area? These are native-run businesses that brazenly defy Canada's tobacco laws and, according to a recent report, openly sell cigarettes to minors. They're an offence to law-abiding people.
Lewis's appointment is welcome if only because it does signal the end of Fantino's polarizing and controversial reign over the provincial police service. But it's clear from Lewis's first comments as commissioner-in-waiting, and from his recent history as Fantino's ally and deputy commissioner of field operations, that very little will change.
We'd have preferred that he be less definitive -- not something a newspaper would usually advocate. But it would have been much more encouraging if Lewis had even suggested he wanted to bide his time, review Caledonia policing from the big-picture commissioner's seat, and then decide whether to make changes. The biggest plus to new leadership is new perspective and change.
Lewis is right: Caledonia is a peaceful place these days. Business has returned to the streets, anglers are back beside and on the Grand River, locals enjoy the small-town atmosphere.
But tensions remain. Many area residents, outside observers and Haldimand County Mayor Marie Trainer have said the OPP has practised a form of two-tier policing over the past four years. Lorne Boyko, chair of the Haldimand County Police Services Board, who welcomed Lewis's appointment, was right in acknowledging that the Constitution (and federal native legislation) mandates different judicial treatment of natives and non-natives. It's a Canadian reality.
But the double standard of policing -- best exemplified by the smoke shacks that operate with impunity while non-native customers are charged as they drive away -- is much less acceptable.
And Lewis needs to deal with widespread public perception that native lawlessness is ignored to the extent that non-natives can be left at risk. The Globe and Mail reports Lewis said two years ago that "short of somebody having a kid kidnapped," OPP officers were not to go onto DCE. Adding to the perception, Caledonia couple Dana Chatwell and Dave Brown received a confidential settlement this year after they sued the OPP and the province for $7 million for being abandoned to the lawlessness on DCE adjacent to their home.
One of Lewis's first tasks will be to appoint his successor to handle the Caledonia file. Let's hope whoever that is, he or she might bring some fresh thinking to the policing issues there.
Editorials are written by members of the editorial board. They represent the position of the newspaper, not necessarily the individual author.