Photo:Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Sylvia Jones monitors speeds along Jocelyn Street alongside Port Hope Police Constable Ryan Harrington
Photo:Nine members of Cobourg Police including Chief, Deputy Chief, Special Constables along with Auxiliary, two OPP Inspectors (one from Northumberland and one from Peterborough County) and four Port Hope Police officers including Chief stand with MPP David Piccini and Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Sylvia Jones at a roundtable discussion.
Members of the Port Hope Police had two special ride-a-longs on Saturday, March 23, 2019.
Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini along with the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Sylvia Jones were in separate vehicles riding along with Port Hope Police officers.
Today’s Northumberland got the chance to speak with the Honourable Sylvia Jones while they were conducting radar on Jocelyn Street on Saturday afternoon.
Jones said she started the day in Peterborough at a symposium to encourage women to look at policing as a career before Jones joined Piccini at a roundtable of police services to get feedback on how policies made at Queen’s Park actually impact people on the front lines.
TN: What’s been the response from police officers that you’ve spoken to in the area.
SJ: Very positive. I think whenever politicians spend the time to listen and hear direct suggestions and feedback it’s valuable.
TN: Number one priority officers are coming forward with?
SJ: It depends on the community you’re serving. We continue to try to raise concerns and figure out how we deal with the changing laws surrounding cannabis. Whether that’s in the selling in the stores, the illegal component, they are often issues raised with me. We were just actually talking about the drug impairment piece. It’s one thing that many of our drivers still don’t understand the impacts of distracted driving and using electronics while they need to be focused on the road, but that’s overlayed when you put that over impairment that happens as a result of drugs or alcohol.
TN:People have also questioned selling marijuana on the reserves. Is that legal?
SJ: The First Nations component is always challenging. You have some historic rights that Indigenous communities feel they have and we overlay that as a Province and frankly as a Country with personal safety and safety in our communities. As you can imagine it’s multi-ministry, the Minister of Finance works on it, Indigenous Affairs works on it, Health works on it and of course Public Safety as well. These are historic challenges that are not going to solved with “thou shalts,” there has to be ongoing conversations to make sure that we respect their rights, but they also understand our need to make sure our communities are safe.
TN: Am I getting that it’s a grey area?
SJ: It’s a complicated area.
TN: I hear from officers there needs to be tougher laws and even when they issue press releases the same people being charged with the same thing, over and over and over and are getting released and there is so much paperwork now with policing.
SJ: I think what we’ve done successfully as a government is to match some Ministries together. Community Safety, Correctional Services and the partnership that I have with the Ministry of Attorney General speaks to that. When the Attorney General makes changes it impacts the Ministry in terms of Corrections or in terms of the justice side, so we’ve started looking at issues and policies as a justice sector because we understand if there are down stream effects from changes that happen in the court system, that it’s our front line officers that are challenged. We see this in corrections all the time. You get a ruling, a change that is made and it impacts how corrections officers can deal with individuals who are in our provincial and frankly federal institutions. So the fact that we, as a government have made a very conscious decision to deal with the justice sector as a whole will start to untangle some of those “you can’t make a change in the justice or the court system without it impacting the frontline officers.”
TN: It’s so frustrating as a community when you see the same names on the press releases and the rehabilitation isn’t there and it has to be frustrating for police.
SJ: From a provincial standpoint frankly people aren’t in a provincial institution for very long. The average stay in a Ontario Provincial Correction facility is 42 days. When you factor in back and forth to court there isn’t really a lot of opportunity for treatment and rehabilitation. Having said that, our Correctional Institutions have become hospitals, have become assessment centres, have become treatment centres. It’s a far different system then what you and I might have thought of as room and board for bad people. It’s not that anymore. And we have to acknowledge that because there are a lot of individuals who are in our Provincial Institutions with very serious mental health and addictions and drug issues that need to be dealt with. And that’s part of why we’ve done the investment of the other end on the mental health side.
Press Release
Standing with our Local Police Services
MPP Piccini was joined by the Minister of Community Safety & Correctional Services to highlight Bill 68, Comprehensive Police Services Act and discuss progressive ways to support policing
COBOURG, ON – Today, M.P.P. David Piccini was joined by Hon. Sylvia Jones, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, for a roundtable discussion with the Port Hope Police Service, Cobourg Police Service and Ontario Provincial Police at the Baxter Lounge in Cobourg.
Hon. Sylvia Jones and M.P.P. Piccini lead a roundtable discussion on changes to the Ontario Police Services Act and the Provincial Government’s commitment to restoring fairness and respect for police, enhancing oversight, and improving governance, training and transparency.
“Before the last election, the Liberal Government passed the most anti-police legislation in Canadian history,” said Minister Jones. “After extensive consultation with frontline officers, community members and associations our Government recently introduced the Comprehensive Ontario Police Services Act, a key part of our promise to make Ontario safer, stand up for victims and hold criminals accountable for their actions.”
“I am glad Minister Jones took the time to meet with our local police services and recognizes the leading and progressive role they are playing in law enforcement and community engagement,” said Piccini. After a rocky relationship at times with the previous Government it is important for me to let the women and men of our local Police Services know we’re listening to their concerns, we value them and recognize the very important role they play in our community.”
After the roundtable, Hon. Sylvia Jones and M.P.P. Piccini took off for Port Hope where they joined front-line officers for a ride-along.
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Quick Facts
- The government plans to introduce a new bill entitled the Comprehensive Ontario Police Services Act, 2019 that would create the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019 and the Special Investigations Unit Act, 2019 to repeal and replace the Police Services Act, 2018, and the Ontario Special Investigations Unit Act, 2018. The bill would also repeal the Policing Oversight Act, 2018, and the Ontario Policing Discipline Tribunal Act, 2018.
- First Nations policing provisions laid out in the Police Services Act, 2018, would be adopted providing First Nations communities with greater choice in how their policing services are delivered.
- The amendments to the Police Services Act (1990) – the legislation currently in force – that add new community safety and well-being planning provisions and came into force on January 1, 2019, would continue to be in force with a new provision requiring the participation of the local police service in the development of the plan.
- The Missing Persons Act, 2018, and Forensic Laboratories Act, 2018, and the majority of the previous amendments to the Coroners Act would remain as passed in the Safer Ontario Act, 2018.
- The new police oversight legislation would respond to Justice Tulloch’s recommendations in the Report of the Independent Police Oversight Review.
- On February 13th, Minister Jones recommended Constable Volodymyr Zvezd’Onkin (54 Division) and Constable Hongfei Zhou (54 Division) for the Ontario Medal of Police Bravery for their courage in stopping the Danforth shooter. The two officers had previously been subject to a six month investigation by the SIU.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
