On Thursday, 31 July, 2014 – David Common of the CBC radio show Metro Morning spoke with Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) Chair Alok Mukherjee to discuss the Board’s decision not to renew the employment contract of Chief Bill Blair which was announced the day before.
Of course, Dr. Mukherjee speaks in very diplomatic terms regarding the decision to reject Blair’s request to remain on as chief of the Toronto Police Service (similar to the language used in their press release making the announcement – click here).
Well -you know, it is one of those things where they don’t want to speak badly about the person who served no matter how terrible they were, just focus on what you need in the future. Hmm, riiight, move it along…
One interesting point is when Mukherjee attempts to defend himself from the criticism of former mayor John Sewell who spoke with Metro Morning the week prior. That will be towards the end.
Below is a transcript of the radio interview for your convenience. If you want to hear the radio interview for yourself – please click here
David Common – 0:16 Good morning, why the decision not to renew?
Alok Mukherjee – 0:21 Well the Board had a very lengthy and serious discussion about it in terms of the needs of the organization, what the future requirements are, what the challenges and issues are. And you know the Board is the management body and it has the responsibility to decide the leadership of the organization. And it was the Board’s considered decision and judgment that at the end of 10 years the chief will have provided excellent leadership and would have served longer than most of the chiefs before him. And it would appropriate this time in terms of organizational renewal to look for a new chief. And the decision was made in full recognition of the considerable contribution of Chief Blair, there’s no reflection on that at all.
Common – 1:26 Since you made the decision you said you won’t get into specifics about why you wouldn’t renew Chief Blair because you see it as a personnel issue – but I’m sure you can imagine a lot of people are interested. You are on record recently saying he’s done an excellent job but that you want renewal. Clearly you want something different than what he can provide. What is it that you didn’t think he could provide that you now need?
Mukherjee – 1:52 Well it’s not unusual for large complex organizations to have a leadership change at the top and it’s based on the judgment of its management body that the time is right to move on and seek new perspectives, new direction. And in the mind of the Board this was the right time for the police service to have that change. As you know there are a number significant challenges facing. A big one is the transformation of the organization.
Common – 2:43 What does that mean, the transformation of the organization?
Mukherjee – 2:46 Well we’ve been working for several years now with Chief Blair on how we make sure that the cost of policing continues to be affordable and sustainable. And the chief undertook a very comprehensive review, the Board now has a consultant doing further work on that as the Board would like to see alternative ways of providing some of the services. The Board would like to see changes in some of the business processes and that is just one of the contexts in which the Board felt that another perspective persisted in achieving those changes would be useful.
Common – 3:34 You’re using the word transformation. When you used that word yesterday you brought up use of force by the police, and carding – stopping people on the street. These are two things Blair had been working on, what in your mind was he not doing well enough?
Mukherjee – 3:51 As I said it is absolutely no reflection on Chief Blair and the issue is not what he was not doing well enough. The issue is is it the right time to provide the organization with some other perspective and the Board’s decision was that this was the right time to do that. Those are significant issues, Chief Blair has worked hard on the them. The Board has brought in a very strong policy on carding – the policy on community contact – which the Board would like to see implemented fully. And on use of force, particularly in the context of mental health issues, the Board has a committee which has been working for several years now and the Board welcome the report by Justice Iacobucci and it would like to see that implemented fully. Again, the point I make is not that Chief Blair does not have a commitment to those issues. He does and he’s been working hard on it. The Board’s position is the Chief has provided remarkable distinguished service for a long period of time. By April 2015 he will have served for 10 years and the time is right the police as an organization to be led with somebody different.
Common – 5:30 John Sewell of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition was here last week speaking about Chief Blair, but he also wanted to talk about police oversight. [He plays the interview with John Sewell from the previous week (click here) where he talks about the release of private non-conviction records on background checks. Sewell argues that the Board has shown no leadership in stopping this from happening and the real question should be “what do we want out of the Board as well” not just the Chief] With the search soon to be under way for a new police chief, do you think it is also time to rethink the role of the Police Services Board?
Mukherjee – 6:24 Well Mr. Sewell is of course entitled to his opinion. Anybody who has taken the time to review the Board’s policy on that particular subject he refers to would know that it’s a very strong and comprehensive policy. Anybody who has been paying attention will know just a few months ago the direction that the Board gave to Chief Blair about speeding up the response to request for the release of background information. So he’s entitled to his opinion, as far as the Board is concerned it has very much engaged in looking at improvements that it could make in the way that it provides governance and oversight. I refer you to the Morden report which the Board commissioned and spent a significant amount of money to get done and the Board has been in the process of implementing that in order to improve the effectiveness of its role. It learned lessons from some of the gaps that Justice Morden identified when providing of oversight of G20. In dealing with that there are a significant number of areas where the Board has been very very effective. So that is just one opinion out of many. I spend a lot of time in the community and I could tell you that it is not an opinion that is shared.
Common – 8:05 Mr. Mukherjee thank you very much for your time this morning.
Abused & Depressed 