[URBAN NOTE] "When the Toronto police illegally spied on their own bosses"

[rfmcdonald]

At Daily Xtra, Arshy Mann asks an important question. How can the Toronto police be trusted when it spies on its own leaders?

In the days since the death of former Toronto police chief Bill McCormack, there’s been much talk of his legacy; as a family man, as a homicide investigator, as the city’s first Catholic police chief.

But like all chiefs before and after him, McCormack, who was Toronto's top cop from 1991 to 1995, was a deeply controversial figure.

Some of the scrutiny he endured during his tenure was relatively silly and inconsequential. When he assumed the post, McCormack came under fire for donning war medals that he wasn’t entitled to wear, technically a criminal offence. The RCMP refused to bring charges forward and the city moved on.

Other actions, however, were deeply serious.

At the same time that the war medals controversy was ongoing, the Toronto police began conducting a covert surveillance campaign on members of the civilian oversight board charged with holding them to account.