Hope for the OPP?
The official word on finding a replacement for OPP Commissioner Gwen Boniface is that a search will begin:
An extensive, Canada-wide search will begin shortly to fill the position.
Boniface has been feeling the heat over the handling of the Caledonia land dispute. Now a new hand will be at the wheel.
Strangely, though, I have heard that this "search" is for the benefit of the media, and for proles like you and me.
The frontrunner is Jay Hope, the deputy commissioner of the OPP.
Is he the best hope for the OPP? Or a false hope?
At first glance, Jay Hope brings a lot to the table when it comes to diversity:
Jay Hope, OPP Chief Superintendent, is the highest-ranking black police officer in Canada.
Graduating from UTSC in 1979 with a BA in psychology and criminology, Hope is the head of the Ontario Provincial Police's (OPP) human resources bureau. During his more than 22 years with the OPP, Hope has taken an active role in operational policing, focusing on the recruitment of women, First Nations people and visible minorities.
In the 1990s, he served as a senior investigator for the Ontario Human Rights Commission. In 2001, he was awarded the African-Canadian Achievement Award and the Amethyst Award, the highest award to civil servants.
The problem is that the deeper you look, the more you realize that the only thing he brings is diversity. Over and over again, Jay Hope appears in articles focusing on black achievement. Now Hope can't control what elements of his life people will focus on. But then it seems like that is a large part of the focus of his life as well:
Jay Hope often feels like the Maytag repairman -- he's alone at the top.
The OPP deputy commissioner, the highest ranking black police officer in Canada, said there are far too few black officers being promoted from the rank and file to executive positions and speciality squads, including homicide, sex crimes and drug enforcement.
"We're severely underrepresented," said Hope, the keynote speaker last night at a gala dinner for the Association of Black Law Enforcers.
Fair enough, but what to do about this underrepresentation:
"It's not our fault; it's a failure of leadership to not have coached us and mentored us," said Hope, who got a standing ovation from the 650 guests at the $110-a-plate dinner.
Uh-oh. The victim culture? Does he see himself as a policeman who is black, or a black policeman?
[Former Ontario lieutenant-governor Lincoln Alexander] told the summit [on race relations] that racial profiling has long existed in policing and he was backed up by OPP Superintendent Jay Hope from the Association of Black Law Enforcers.
"This is not a new phenomenon, but it has been acknowledged. It has been said that yes, it does exist," said Alexander.
Chief said the vast majority of his officers do their job every day in a professional and ethical manner
Hope, a black police officer, said the summit is a step in the right direction. "There was a consensus that racial profiling does exist in policing," said Hope, who works out of OPP headquarters in Orillia.
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't have the confidence that the people in that room, the police leaders, would not account for the things that they said."
Hope said his group wanted to make sure that racial profiling is dealt separately from the issue of violence in the community.
Does Hope believe racial profiling happens? It does if the black community tells him it does:
OPP Superintendent Jay Hope, with the Association of Black Law Enforcers, said he was heartened by what he heard yesterday from his colleagues even if some still don't accept racial profiling happens often.
"It doesn't matter whether (racial profiling) exists or doesn't exist," Hope said. "If the community says it exists, then we have to respond.
I bet that will endear him with the troops.
So the question is how to change the police culture so that it looks more black, and is more sensitive to the black reality. Jay Hope has an idea about that too:
At a fundraising dinner Saturday, Canada's highest-ranking black officer called on police forces to consider a new form of testing that would weed out prospective officers who may be racist. Jay Hope, deputy commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, urged police associations to broaden their testing of officers to include not only psychological and drug exams, but also "racial tolerance testing."
Hope also says there are far too few black officers being promoted from the rank and file to executive positions and speciality squads. He blame a lack of motivation and leadership from above.
Of course, based on what he has already said, you might worry that his test on whether a particular police officer is racist is whether someone from the black community says he is.
But the real question is whether Jay Hope has what it takes to command the OPP, especially when faced with the sorts of challenges to authority like that in Caledonia.
As much a Gwen Boniface has been criticized for inaction, Jay Hope might be too much action!
The head of the police riot squad that beat up striking workers at Queen's Park says physical force was needed because the provincial government could have been "overthrown," an inquiry has heard.
If the Progressive Conservative goveminent [sic] couldn't get all of its members into the Legislature March 18, it could have lost a vote and been subjected to a non-confidence motion, OPP Inspector Jay Hope said yesterday.
With the spring session starting at 1:30 p.m., Hope said he thought it imperative to get all members in before then.
Lawyer Peter Howard, counsel to the commission of inquiry probing the violence, asked Hope: "What was so vital about having all the MPPs in by that time?"
Overthrown by a bunch of desk jockeys at a picket line? What will Jay Hope do faced with angry Natives in SUVs armed with rifles and machetes? Carpet bomb them?
Put aside whether it was the right decision. The fact is that there were repercussions from that incident. But what about repercussions for Jay Hope?
After the OPSEU Strike in 1995, the OPP were accused of using excess force, after beating a number of strikers at Queens Park. After that incident the [Mike Harris Conservative] Ontario Government said the OPP could no longer provide the riot control duties at the Legislature Building.
The funny thing is, you would think that after an incident like that, where the OPP ended up losing an important responsibility because of his decision, Jay Hope's career would have gone in the crapper.
But somehow, despite getting the Ontario Provincial Police tossed out of Queen's Park for whaling on the heads of a bunch of file clerks, he becomes the number two man at the OPP.
Is he on the verge of taking over the OPP?
One policeman thinks so:
If you stick around long enough you'll see Jay Hope get Gwen's job :wink:
That was in August of 2003. I guess we'll have to stick around just a bit longer to see if "opp2" predicted it right.
An afterthought: Gwen Boniface is an aboriginal Canadian woman, promoted in part because of her political optics (to think otherwise is naive). Jay Hope is black, and spends a great deal of time worrying about diversity, especially on promoting other blacks. He seems strangely immune to punishment for a poor command decision. With this sort of leadership at the OPP, is it a surprise that the rank-and-file seems to have performed so poorly in Caledonia? And what about the rest of the top ranks? Any law-and-order street cops among them? I wonder.
Skew my story on Skewz.com
Rate political news for their bias, read related stories, and leave your own skewed commentary
Search for more opinions from Canadian bloggers on these related keywords
Caledonia OPP Ontario Provincial Police Gwen Boniface Jay Hope racial profiling
Sphere presents related news articles and blog posts
Sphere It!
Comments
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/07/28/1708019-cp.html
Thought I might link to this news item. If it is not allowed, please just delete and accept my apologies. I was quite upset when I read the line that aboriginals don't recognize Canadian law and that more violence around the country may result. Could these be the words of criminals or traitors? Is this the literal understanding that we must now draw from these comments from a "spokesperson" for the natives? Is this land worth blood then? And how can one have an agreement enforced with groups that don't recognize their legal obligations?
---Janie Jamieson, spokesperson for the aboriginals occupying the subdivision, said Boniface understood the dynamics of the dispute and didn't enforce the law blindly by forcibly evicting protesters who remain at the site.
"It's a shame," Jamieson said. "She seemed really dedicated to having patience and letting the land issue be resolved. Hopefully the next person will have the same peaceful resolve she had."
A new commissioner who fails to understand that aboriginals don't recognize Canadian law could be risking rebellion across the country from those who support the occupation, Jamieson added.
"That's all it would take," she said. ---
Posted by: mike s at July 28, 2006 06:05 PM
...wonder if the new commissioner will be forced to wear a tutu...
Posted by: tomax7 at July 28, 2006 06:55 PM
Some data and writings on racial profiling in Canada and the US:
- Final report of the Kingston, Ontario, Police Department's Collection Data Project, the first racial profiling study conducted in Canada
- Ontario Human Rights Commission's Paying the Price: The Human Cost of Racial Profiling inquiry report
- 2003 Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice article on the racial profiling debate in Toronto
- Northeastern University's Racial Profiling Data Collection Resource Center
- A US DoJ fact sheet on racial profiling, containing President George W. Bush's perspective on racial profiling in America
- The US DoJ consent decree entered into by the State of New Jersey & NJ Police Department following a DoJ investigation into NJ police practises
- A City Journal article arguing that racial profiling is a myth
- A FrontPage article citing research evidence that 'reveals the phenomenon is largely a myth.'
Posted by: Escher at July 28, 2006 10:54 PM
"An afterthought: Gwen Boniface is an aboriginal Canadian woman" where do you get this shit?
Posted by: at July 29, 2006 11:53 AM
No way Jose, Jay won't get the job, Fantino will, it's already a done deal, ask Michael Bryant, he's been involved since the get go, why else would the OPP shoot themselves in the foot?
Posted by: Mark-Alan Whittle at July 29, 2006 06:18 PM
Are Canadians not up to their 'eyeballs' with enough political correct minority-hires already? The last high profile position (govenor-general of Canada) was doled out to Black woman who was replacing another visible-minority woman (Adrienne Clarkson). Now the fix could be in for a Black O.P.P. commisioner in the name of Jay Hope who would be replacing an out-going woman police commissioner.
Why are all the qualified white men being relegated to the back of the bus in these plum assignments to make room for a minority? Last time I checked with Stats Canada census, Canadian Whites represented about 86% of our entire population with white males accounting for approx. half that percentile.
In contrast, male and female Blacks represented about 2% of Canada's population with one-half of those being foreign-born. So what are the numerical odds of having both, a Black G-G and possibly a Black O.P.P. commissioner?
To demonstrate our 'un-racism' through employment-equity standards by gratuitously placing people in influential government posts because of their skin colour is sending the wrong message here. How many more-qualified White candidates will have to forego an important promotion to satisfy the gods of political correctness? There is little doubt that Jay Hope is to be displayed on the political stage as their next poster boy in Canada's enforced 'multi-culturalism' experiment.
Posted by: Victor at July 29, 2006 10:05 PM
Jay is a great person and a good friend of my dad, i want to become just like him.
Posted by: Unknown at July 29, 2006 10:41 PM
...in PC non-speak, I remember a time when quite a few of the bus drivers in Calgary were, um, turbanites.
Come to find the HR department had a few 'dot in the forehead' female types, but that's not reverse discrimination right?
And I wasn't being discriminated against when I tried joining the RCMP and couldn't because as the recruiting sargeant said - sorry, word is Ottawa isn't hiring WASP's...
..and that ain't speaking about a bee for all the PC types.
But I wish Mr. Hope the best and hopes he does a lot of house cleaning to restore the pride and fellowship of the OPP.
Akin Sidney P. in "To Sir with Love"?
Posted by: tomax7 at July 30, 2006 03:43 PM
I come from a family of four generations in Canada, specifically Ontario. Therefore, the search for the next OPP commissioner has my attention. I can’t recall a commissioner race which has started this way. Gee, I wonder why?! At first glance the posting “New Hope for the OPP” seemed like a well written examination. However, upon closer inspection there are holes the size of the British Isles!
Hope can’t control what the media and others, including you focus on. Like the quotes you have decided to include in your posting to emphasize your point that Hope only seems to know diversity. I remember hearing about him all the time for years for some pretty darn good traffic programs in the GTA which protected not just blacks but us good white folks too.
Perhaps, Hope was chosen specifically to speak on topics of racial profiling and public services representing demographic realities. In regards to Hope having a victim culture where he referenced it was the failure of leadership to coach and mentor black officers, does seem provocative. However, the transcript of that speech betrays your sophomoric manipulations. In fact, Hope went on to list a number of insights most of which point to the individual’s responsibilities for promotion.
Although at first your comments about Hope’s attempts to make police culture more black did illicit the intended anger but your supporting quote did not support your argument. Hope called for police services to include racial tolerance testing to weed out racists in the hiring and promotion process. To follow your logic that this process will only allow blacks to pass is to say that all white people are racists! If that is the truth you are spewing, then racial profiling, preferential hiring/ promotions of whites etc is, therefore, real and practiced. And so, then is your true fear of exposure?
Next is the matter of Queen’s Park. I remember the file clerks who you speak of: the strikers as not so docile as your revisionist retell might suggest. I remember among other things, aggressive angry strikers spitting on QP employees and MPPs as they tried to go to work. Further, the result of the inquiry pointed fault with the communication capabilities of the old building. Never did the findings indicate that Jay Hope ordered his officers to do anything like whack protestors or worse. I recall the judge saying that the original sin was with the protestors not the police. More of your revisionist history refuted. In addition, please consider another view; like the OPP always wanted out of QP and welcomed the recommendations. But that doesn’t support your skewed point of view either I suppose.
Finally, the Commissioner of the OPP is not aboriginal. She is a white female, daughter of a white male, wife of a white male and mother of a white male. You seem to worry about policing in Ontario but as with most Canadian institutions white males are pretty safe and the overwhelming majority. In fact, of the 60 police departments 58 are run by white males and none are run by blacks!
SO WHAT ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT!!
RELAX BUDDY
WITH A LITTLE MORE EFFORT YOU’LL EITHER PASS THOSE POLICE EXAMS AND GET HIRED AND GO ON TO RUN THE JOINT SOON ENOUGH OR PASS YOUR PROMOTIONAL EXAMS AND GO ON UP THE LADDER.
Signed,
Fed-up in the not-so-great white north!
Posted by: S. Jones at July 30, 2006 09:17 PM
The reference to your "family of four generations in Canada" appeared to be incongruent to the topic unless you omitted 'Black' in your opening line. Could there also have been some 'Hope' lacking as well, despite a throw-them-off-the-scent reference to "us good white folks too"?
You cited some reasoned debating points that could bear closer scrutiny but I found your hackneyed comment of ".......police services to include racial tolerance testing to weed out racists in the hiring and promotion process" as a feeble attempt of guilt-mongering. Racism has become such a diluted word that it could even apply to a disagreeable 'look' at someone of a different race. However, if we're really honest with ourselves, we're all 'racists'.... meaning that we're more comfortable mingling with members of our own tribe without the p.c. multi-culti hounddogs sniffing out for state-sponsored infractions.
Then you destroyed a good post by 'shouting' [higher-case] your rant in an atypical style from your previous paragraphs.... Puzzling!
Posted by: Victor at July 31, 2006 10:57 AM
It is interesting that individuals choose to focus on Jay’s actions at the Legislature with the individual OPSEU protesters who breached security, were responded to and received injuries. Fast forward a couple of years and when the protesting poor & homeless breach security at the Legislature and are injured/arrested, no one is concerned about the colour of the officer who was in charge at that time, why? The sophisticated articulated racism by individuals that speak of “reverse racism”, “employment equity”, “special interest groups” and “political correctness” disgust me. It was fine when “Black” Jay Hope risked his life for the people of Ontario as an undercover officer investigating drug dealers, but now its not ok for the same very qualified and well rounded (in policing) “Black” Jay Hope to be a leader in the OPP? Some things don’t change.
Posted by: R. David Mitchell at July 31, 2006 11:06 AM
R. David Mitchell says "The sophisticated articulated racism by individuals that speak of “reverse racism”, “employment equity”, “special interest groups” and “political correctness” disgust me."
You're free to wallow in your 'disgust', as that is your right, but censuring 'individuals' for speaking freely of “reverse racism”, “employment equity”, “special interest groups” and “political correctness” is quite unreasonable. It appears you are trying to impose sanctions on anyone who has the moxie to think, speak or write too frankly about race. It's been stated before that the modern definition of 'racist' is somebody who is winning an argument against a liberal.
So, further to your rhetoric of "[i]t was fine when “Black” Jay Hope risked his life for the people of Ontario as an undercover officer investigating drug dealers, but now its not ok for the same very qualified and well rounded (in policing) “Black” Jay Hope to be a leader in the OPP?" The cynic within me has grave doubts that any uniformed or undercover policeman is altruistically inclined to risk his life for any province or city. Being a policeman is a job/career and a paycheck that comes with a certain ego-related prestige as a bonus reward. So your "[r]isking his life" statement is employing more hyperbole than is necessary.
As you have 'outed' yourself as a 'Jay fan', I can almost assure you that he'll be the next O.P.P. commissioner not because he's the most qualified, but because of his racial minority status. Boniface was the first woman commissioner and now it's a Black man's turn at the wheel......that's how (dare I say it) the political-correct standards of the day works.
Posted by: Victor at July 31, 2006 10:46 PM
 
|
|
