Fmr. Police Services Board Vice Chair Worries Downtown Not Represented

Mayor Rob Ford appointed three fresh faces to the Toronto Police Services Board Wednesday and one of the outgoing members, Toronto Centre-Rosedale (Ward 28) Councillor Pam McConnell, worries about a lack of representation for the downtown core.

Coun. Chin Lee (Scarborough Rouge River, Ward 41), Coun. Frances Nunziata (York-Weston, Ward 10) and Coun. Michael Thompson (Scarborough Centre, Ward 37) are the new members.

Nunziata and Thompson are members of the mayor’s inner-circle — Nunziata as council speaker and Thompson as chair of the economic development committee.

Downtown councillors McConnell and Adam Vaughan of Trinity-Spadina (Ward 20) weren’t reappointed. York South Weston councillor Frank Di Giogrio is also gone.

“I am concerned that there isn’t anybody from the downtown, but having said that pretty well downtowners are not part of any of the major agency boards and commissions and I think that’s a mistake,” McConnell told CityNews.ca Wednesday. See list of appointments here (.pdf).

McConnell, who served on the Police Services Board for seven years and was vice chair, said despite her concern, she believes the councillors appointed Wednesday have the skills to handle the “very, very difficult portfolio.”

“I will wish them all the luck in the world.”

McConnell said she’s accomplished the goals she had when she started on the board, which included appointing a chief of police who understands community policing, youth, diversity and supports civilian oversight.

She said the board implemented recommendations from a racial profiling report penned by the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s then-chief commissioner Keith Norton. They included requiring all officers wear name tags as part of their uniforms and the installation of in-car cameras.

McConnell also noted the board worked to ensure recommendations from the Jane Doe audit were implemented to change the way police handle sexual assault cases and to improve gender and cultural diversity in the force.

“I’m very happy that we’ve moved from a, I think a service of the [19]50s to a service that is ready to go into 2011,” she said.

The left-right divide at council was highlighted Tuesday following Don Cherry’s controversial address at Ford’s swearing-in ceremony in which he criticized left-leaning Torontonians and politicians, calling them bike riding “pinkos” and “kooks”. McConnell said she’s not concerned about the political stripes of Ford’s appointments, but rather the regional disparity.

“I’ve never heard of an administration before who actually took Etobicoke or Scarborough and just didn’t have them in any positions of authority,” she said.

“I’m not certain that ideology is the main piece … our concern is that the region of the downtown community council has not been given any responsibilities on any of the agency boards, commissions of substance, nor on the executive.”

“That’s quite a large disenfranchisement of the large extended downtown.”

The mayor’s office hadn’t responded to CityNews.ca’s request for comment by the time of publication.

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