Proposed legislation puts thousands of police jobs at risk. It puts unfair oversight rules on the table. We need your help to stop these damaging rules.
On November 2, 2017, the Ontario Legislature introduced Bill 175, the Safer Ontario Act 2017. This bill is a comprehensive public safety law representing the largest policing transformation in years if it’s passed.
While there are some positive aspects to this bill, there are also some dangerous precedents. It reduces our officers’ efficiency through oversight limiting due process.
If passed, the bill would make it easier to dismiss officers seeking treatment for physical and mental health problems. The bill also makes it easier to bring for-profit policing firms into the province. Key jobs like public disturbance calls, ticketing and burglary response are at risk.
In short: police and support staff around the province need your help.
The PAO, OPPA and TPA created a website www.keepontariosafe.ca that outlines the problem to officers, their families, and to concerned citizens. The goal is to convince lawmakers the Ontario police must remain public, effective and accountable.
Private police services are not an option for Ontarians. A public police force is answerable to the communities they serve. Private security is not.
On the website, there are pages to learn more about Bill 175. I urge you to check out the webpage and support police services personnel in Ontario by clicking on a quick and easy message that e-mails MPPs directly. The correspondence will show the Ontario government we are unified behind this issue: for-profit police have no place in the province.
Sincerely,
President Rob Jamieson & the Board of Directors
Ontario Provincial Police Association