Well I'm really not sure which is worse: Canadian police forces not knowing when their own officers breached citizens' Charter rights or them knowing and doing nothing about it. Is this simply a case of plausible deniability such that the buck does not land on their desks? Starngely today's K-W Record ("Officer disciplined in Waterloo") lead front page story states that there were "...six rulings where judges found officers committed serious Charter breaches." in Waterloo Region. Wow that's bad but then Chief Larkin refused to advise the name of the officer involved or the incident in which a Waterloo Region Police Officer was disciplined citing Police Service Act (PSA) confidentiality provisions. "Under the provincial legislation, disciplinary matters that are deemed to be not serious in nature can be handled through an informal process. Informal discipline cases are not made public." So which is it, "not serious" disciplinary matters or "...serious Charter breaches." Or heaven forbid were they serious Charter breaches but the PSA charges against the officer were not serious in nature? Clarification is needed if Chief Larkin or any other local big wigs think that this kind of lack of transparency is either acceptable or reassuring to the public. "You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all the time."
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