Ombudsman slams OPP and government for lack of action on PTSD among officers

Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin slams the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services for being “reluctant” to acknowledge and take action to support police officers who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, likening the response to a “bureaucratic brush-off.”

In his long-awaited 155-page report called In the Line of Duty, which was released Wednesday, Marin said both the OPP and the ministry have shown little leadership in implementing proactive, preventive programs to help officers.

He makes 34 recommendations, 28 of them directed at the OPP alone, that focus on the need to confront the stigma in the police culture, increase psychological services available to officers and to develop province-wide programs aimed at preventing and dealing with operational stress injuries and suicide.

He calls on the OPP to conduct a comprehensive review of its education, training, peer support, employee assistance and other programming related to these injuries.

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OPP Commissioner says Star series left ‘false perception’ that OPP is silent on stress disorders

Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Chris Lewis says the Toronto Star series on post-traumatic stress disorder among police officers “did a good job of raising public awareness” on the issue.

However, the weekend stories painted “a false perception” that the OPP is doing nothing, he charged in an interview Tuesday.

The commissioner said the stories didn’t tell any success stories about what the OPP is doing.
Lewis acknowledged that he cannot comment specifically on the report that is soon to be released by the Ontario Ombudsman’s office detailing the complaints from dozens of officers about how the OPP deals with operational stress injuries.

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Charges laid against a Guelph activist over G20 blogging

KITCHENER — Julian Ichim is going to have another day in court.

The local activist, who helped lead the Occupy Guelph movement and various other recent protests in Guelph, has been charged with three counts of disobeying a court order and is scheduled to appear in a Toronto courtroom on Dec. 13. The charges were laid in relation to a post on a blog he started this month. Prior to being charged was warned by the OPP he would face charges if he didn’t excise a name in a post about an undercover officer who worked on the G20 case.

Ichim said he’s looking forward to the trial and won’t amend his blog.

“I actually thanked them for charging me,” he said. “The cops’ mouths just dropped.”

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OPP officer cleared in lethal Taser shooting

Curtis Rush Staff Reporter

An OPP officer has been cleared in the death of a 27-year-old schizophrenic man who was shot with a Taser in Collingwood last summer.

The Special Investigations Unit, an independent agency, determined that the stun gun is a lethal weapon that in this case caused the death of Aron Firman.

However, Ian Scott, head of the SIU, determined that the officer had a lawful right to fire it and the victim had underlying health conditions that could have contributed to his death.

Two OPP officers were dispatched to the Blue Mountain Residence in Collingwood on June 24 following an assault complaint.

Firman was found sitting in a chair outside one of the buildings, but when police moved in to arrest him, he became agitated. He then got up and “moved aggressively” towards one of the officers, according to the SIU.

One officer tried to intervene and Firman struck her in the face with an elbow, Scott wrote on his report.

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This headline to the same story certainly conveys a different impression. Tom

Ontario police watchdog blames Taser in man’s death

OPP on remote reserve chased out by rock-throwing mob

Chaotic scene that saw officers pushed and shoved as station was breached is detailed in OPP report

Christie Blatchford

The entire Ontario Provincial Police detachment at the remote Pikangikum First Nation was marched off the reserve five weeks ago by a rock-throwing mob of elected councillors and residents.

The stunning forced departure of 11 OPP members from the isolated community, reached in summer only by air or water, went publicly unacknowledged by the force until now.

It was also almost entirely unreported, with only a couple of small stories, none with any detail, appearing locally about a week after the June 30 incident.

These stories either mentioned that “some officers” had been forced to leave or described the incident as a protest in which no one was hurt.

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Ontario to appoint Crown to prosecute OPP chief

Shannon Kari, National Post Published: Tuesday, January 12, 2010

OPP Chief Julian Fantino is facing a criminal charge of attempting to influence municipal officials as a result of an email he sent in 2007 to a councillor in Haldimand County in Southern Ontario, ...

The Ontario government is going ahead with plans to appoint one of its own Crown attorneys to prosecute Julian Fantino, even though it tried to stop criminal charges against the Commissioner of the OPP from going ahead.

A provincial Crown will first address the matter in court on Friday morning.

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