N.L. needs to 'get moving' on independent police oversight, says PC justice critic
Helen Conway Ottenheimer says she supports work completed by First Voice
The Progressive Conservative justice critic is joining a chorus of people who say the Newfoundland and Labrador government should immediately implement an independent police oversight board.
MHA Helen Conway Ottenheimer said there's no reason for the province to wait any longer to adopt the recommendation by First Voice, an urban Indigenous collective that provided the Justice Department with a report on police oversight in Newfoundland and Labrador last October. The report made 26 recommendations to the provincial government.
"It's not sufficient for the minister to just say we need more research. We have it, we don't need to reinvent the wheel, we don't need another report. We have it in front of us, and so let's use this," Conway Ottenheimer said Monday.
"Let's even start, at a minimum … with establishing or looking at establishing a comprehensive system of civilian oversight such as a police service board in our province. It's a major gap right now. It's recognized as a gap by even other jurisdictions in our country. So let's get moving on this."
Conway Ottenheimer's comments come in the wake of a panel discussion at a national conference of the Canadian Association of Police Governance held in St. John's on Friday. The panellists included police reform advocate Justin Campbell of First Voice.
Campbell said he's disappointed by a lack of movement on independent police oversight, among other police reforms, after the organization submitted the report, representing 18 months' worth of research, to the provincial government.
"We were promised a response once they read the reports. That's almost a year now," Campbell said. The core recommendations in the report focus on establishing a provincial police oversight board or commission, he said.
"When we look across other jurisdictions, as we do in this report, it's astounding that Newfoundland and Labrador is nearly the only jurisdiction in this country that has no such mechanism of holding police accountable for their actions but [is] also not providing any kind of proactive government governance whatsoever for police forces."
Conway Ottenheimer said it didn't appear as though there was an attempt to learn from other police governance bodies at the national conference.
An emailed statement attributed to Justice Minister John Hogan said a representative from the department attended the conference and that Hogan provided remarks by video.
In response to Campbell's comments, Hogan wrote that officials with his department continue to consult with organizations and stakeholders on police reform.
"The policing structure in our province is unique," Hogan said in an emailed statement provided by the department. "As a result, significant work is needed to determine what a new police oversight model would look like in Newfoundland and Labrador."
Conway Ottenheimer said the opposition will continue to call on the provincial government to take a position on the report and address its recommendations.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from The St. John's Morning Show