{"id":192503,"date":"2018-12-05T01:02:21","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T06:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=192503"},"modified":"2018-12-05T01:02:21","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T06:02:21","slug":"doug-ford-says-he-wasnt-involved-in-hiring-of-family-friend-as-opp-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/05\/doug-ford-says-he-wasnt-involved-in-hiring-of-family-friend-as-opp-commissioner\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug Ford says he wasn’t involved in hiring of family friend as OPP commissioner"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cI told (the hiring panel) very clearly, I don’t want anything to do with this whatsoever,\u201d he told reporters at the legislature. (File photo<\/a>: FordNation\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2014 Doug Ford defended the appointment of a family friend as the new provincial police commissioner on Tuesday as critics accused the premier of offering key positions to his allies.<\/p>\n

Ronald Taverner’s appointment as the next commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police has prompted demands for an investigation into his selection \u2014 calls that intensified after the government said qualification requirements for the job were lowered partway through the hiring process to broaden the pool of applicants.<\/p>\n

Ford, whose family has been close with 72-year-old Taverner for years, shrugged off concerns around the hiring and said the process had been transparent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told (the hiring panel) very clearly, I don’t want anything to do with this whatsoever,\u201d he told reporters at the legislature.<\/p>\n

Ford went on to say he had seen no problem with providing the final stamp of approval on Taverner’s appointment, which came after a unanimous decision from the hiring panel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had zero influence,\u201d he said of the process.\u201d No matter who it was I would have accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The premier also said his office would not interfere with the operations of the OPP.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can’t influence and tell the police what to do,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s very simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

A report from online news website iPolitics said the original commissioner job posting required candidates to have a rank of deputy police chief or higher, or assistant commissioner or higher, in a major police service \u2014 a threshold Taverner, a superintendent with Toronto police, did not meet.<\/p>\n

Community Safety Minister Sylvia Jones said the hiring firm in charge of the process to find a new commissioner made the decision to lower those requirements. Taverner was a qualified candidate with decades of experience in policing, she added.<\/p>\n

Members of the opposition said Ford’s final approval of Taverner’s appointment was problematic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he did was completely inappropriate,\u201d said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, whose party is demanding an independent investigation into Taverner’s appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s shocking that Mr. Ford doesn’t see that … It’s not the role of the premier to hand-pick his favourite friends and put them in positions of authority over our public services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said the matter needs to be investigated.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only should there not be a conflict, just the appearance of a conflict diminishes both of their offices so they have to address that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Green party Leader Mike Schreiner said Ford’s comments were a \u201csignificant admission\u201d that he engaged in conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo premier should hire their friend as the OPP Commissioner,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat happens if the OPP is asked to investigate something the premier, his office, or the PC government, has done and you have the premier’s friend heading up the OPP?\u201d<\/p>\n

Advocacy group Democracy Watch also asked the integrity commissioner to probe the hiring process.<\/p>\n

\u201cPremier Ford taking part in any way in any step of Mr. Taverner’s appointment process raises concerns about violations of fundamental principles of democratic good government,\u201d said group co-founder Duff Conacher.<\/p>\n

Taverner, currently the unit commander of three divisions within the Toronto Police Service, is set to start in his new job on Dec. 17.<\/p>\n

He takes over from Brad Blair, who held the commissioner’s post on an interim basis after the retirement of Vince Hawkes in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Doug Ford defended the appointment of a family friend as the new provincial police commissioner on Tuesday as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":191316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-shawn-jeffords","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}