Solicitor general says Ontario policing law should be enacted 'as soon as possible'

Ontario's solicitor general says he is trying to complete consultations on a four-year-old policing law that hasn't been enacted "as soon as possible" so it can be put into force.

Michael Kerzner was asked in question period Monday about the police services overhaul that has been sitting on the books since 2019 in light of news reports about an Ontario Provincial Police officer suspended for years with pay.

CBC reported Saturday that Leeds County OPP Const. Jason Redmond has been on paid leave since 2015, stemming from a drug trafficking investigation.

Redmond was convicted of drug trafficking in 2018 but received only one year of probation and no jail time.

Then, on Feb. 16, Redmond was found guilty of a sexual assault that took place in December 2017. 

The Brockville Recorder & Times was first to report this latest decision.

According to a court transcript obtained by CBC News, the judge on the trial heard Crown witness testimonies saying Redmond had raped the victim because he was "proving a point" that she had a drinking problem, and "he made the video to show that anybody could rape her."

Redmond has collected his OPP salary throughout these events, since his original charge in 2015.

His name was included on the 2021 Ontario Sunshine List, which is published annually by the province and publicly discloses the names of all public sector employees who earned $100,000 or more.

According to the list, Redmond made $121,047.96 that year.

Kerzner said no one convicted of such disturbing crimes should be receiving a taxpayer-funded salary and that's why his government brought in the Community Safety and Policing Act, which allows a police chief to suspend an officer without pay if they're charged with a serious offence.

But the law, despite being passed in 2019, is not yet in force because the government has not drawn up all of the associated regulations, and Kerzner said he has directed the deputy minister to complete discussions about those regulations with police services and unions "as soon as possible."

Currently, suspended officers have to be paid even when convicted of an offence, unless they are sentenced to prison.