Halifax’s Board of Police Commissioners has retained a Toronto law firm to conduct an independent civilian review of the events of Aug. 18, 2021 for $250,000.
Coun. Becky Kent, chair of the board, first said last week that the review would go ahead. When the Halifax Examiner asked about it, she didn’t elaborate.
Kent confirmed the news with a prepared statement following the board’s in camera session during its meeting on Wednesday.
“The Board of Police Commissioners for the Halifax Regional Municipality has commissioned an independent civilian review of the issues relating to the Board’s oversight, governance, and policy responsibilities that arise out of the response by Halifax Regional Police (HRP) to protests on August 18, 2021,” Kent said.
On that day, HRP officers, some with their name tags removed, pepper sprayed and arrested protesters attempting to block the removal of temporary shelters on the grounds of the former Halifax Memorial Library.
“Concerns have been expressed about the role and involvement of Halifax Regional Police in the eviction of unhoused and/or underhoused individuals and in its handling of the related protests,” Kent said.
Law firm has been involved in more than 20 reviews
The board chose Toronto-based firm Cooper, Sandler, Shime & Schwartzentruber LLP, with lawyer Mark Sandler leading the review. The firm has conducted more than 20 inquiries and reviews.
“They were the best fit for what we want to do based on their experience of doing this before,” Kent told reporters after the meeting.
Kent expects the work to begin on June 1, with a final report due by the end of May 2024.
“Following the completion of the report, the Board will examine the systemic findings and recommendations made by the Reviewer and develop a strategic plan to address the issues identified,” Kent said in her statement.
According to the terms of reference, Sandler and his team will examine the board’s and HRP’s policies insofar as they “may relate to the eviction or potential eviction of unhoused and/or underhoused individuals from public spaces or the handling of protests by the HRP.”
Sandler may consider, among other things:
(a) The existing or appropriate interplay between the HRP, the Board and the Halifax Regional Municipality, including communication strategies and decision-making relating to potential evictions of unhoused and/or underhoused individuals from public spaces, and enforcement action related thereto, including ticketing such individuals for trespassing;
(b) The existing or appropriate communication, engagement or consultation strategies of the HRP and/or the Board in relation to community organizations, service providers, other stakeholders and the public, as they relate to relevant policing activities before, during and/or after such activities take place;
(c) The adequacy of existing policies, standards, strategies or practices to ensure that officers involved in policing activities involving the public are identifiable;
(d) The adequacy of existing policies, standards, strategies or practices to ensure that the media’s ability to report on policing activities is preserved, to the fullest extent possible;
(e) The adequacy of existing policies, standards, strategies or practices to de-escalate potentially confrontational situations relevant to this Review, while appropriately addressing public safety, including the safety of those in crisis shelters;
(f) The adequacy of existing policies, standards, strategies or practices to address the use of force (including the use of pepper spray) and/or to prevent any disproportionate use of force in relation to the types of police activities relevant to this Review;
(g) The adequacy of existing transparency and accountability mechanisms to address the types of police activities relevant to this Review; and
(h) The adequacy of existing HRP strategies, programs, and competencies to build and maintain positive relationships with marginalized or vulnerable community members who are unhoused and/or underhoused, recognizing the principle of “intersectionality”, that is, that unhoused and/or underhoused community members may be marginalized or vulnerable for multiple reasons (for example, as members of Indigenous, Black and/or LGBTQ2S+ communities)
The terms of reference state that “the Chief of Police will cooperate fully with the Reviewer in conducting the Review and will instruct all members employed by the HRP to cooperate fully with the Reviewer in conducting the Review.”
Board chair hopes review will rebuild public trust
Sandler “will consult with affected community groups or organizations, stakeholders and community members in a variety of ways that maximize their participation in the process, and that ensure that their participation takes place in a safe environment, with accommodations where appropriate.” The reviewer will set up a website soon to facilitate that engagement, according to Kent’s statement.
Kent said she hopes the review will help to rebuild trust between residents and police.
“I’m not saying it’s going to happen overnight,” Kent said. “But certainly, at the end of the day, it’s doing the right thing. And if the public see that as something they want, then they’ll decide whether or not they trust.”
I’ll save the city (is this in the budget someplace) and tax payers a whole pile of $ and time. We don’t need an inquiry. I will write a few paragraphs about the heavy handed and way over the top use of weapons by the cops on a peaceful and rightful protest. $500 bucks (+HST) for sme ink an paper and an hour of my time. Seems like a bargain to me.
Oof it is a lot of money…. and such a long timeline… by the time the results come out, and then by the time the results are (potentially?) acted upon, it will be hard for the public to still remember all the details of what happened and why the review was important in the first place, and to be able to properly evaluate whether this was money well spent. I hope the Board will right now quantify very clearly, in concrete terms, what they hope to get out of this, — and then check off those boxes in 3 years’ time to show us that they got their money’s worth. (Ie can we track if police behaviour *actually* changes because of this??)
And if they don’t check their boxes then…. do we have a “lessons learned” binder where they can note: “Do not spend a quarter of a million dollars getting lawyers to make recommendations” ? :I
Maybe a useful exercise would be to *also* sit down now, for just a few weeks of interviews, with some of the people affected directly by the incident (eg folks living in the emcampent, protestors who were sprayed) and pay a local facilitator 10k to write up a report of *their* recommendations.
Then compare the 10kreport to what the lawyers write for 250k, and see if there’s a substantial difference?
It’s just hard to understand if this process is really worth 250k? When you think that you could pay about 14 people’s rent for an entire year, with that money….. how do you explain that spending to the people who still have nowhere to go? Will they actually see a benefit from this uber-expensive consultation?
Hmm, I just read a more detailed article on the reasons for the review at https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/halifax-police-review-welcomed-by-lawyer-representing-arrested-protestors-1.6384570
Now I feel my previous comment was too reactionary. I guess I will have to reserve judgement for a couple years and see 😀
What a big yawn. You want to rebuild trust? How about start by moving forward on the defunding report already supposedly accepted but sitting on a back shelf somewhere in camera.
A failure before it even begins… This firm is obviously a toady for the cops, because if they were effective with their reviews in the past it would have reduced racism and so on, which we are clearly not seeing anywhere in Canada. Or perhaps they can tell us where they HAVE been effective in reducing racism and the militarization of the police?
“The board chose Toronto-based firm Cooper, Sandler, Shime & Schwartzentruber LLP, with lawyer Mark Sandler leading the review. The firm has conducted more than 20 inquiries and reviews.