The Blame Game:
Wilson vs. Mukherjee
Toronto Police Services Board Chair Alok Mukherjee is not a happy camper and he wants everyone to know
about it; given his latest salvo against Dave Wilson, Toronto Police Association President.
As usual the cops and their paymasters can't agree to give Wilson and his buddies every single dime
that they want. So the cops are arguing the tired and bored song that Toronto cops
should be the highest paid in the province. Yawn!
It doesn't matter that the country is in a recession even if politicians aren't about to own up to the
fiasco of their policies. Higher food prices, shortage of affordable housing, higher gas prices
means every possible dime squeezed out of every source of income in order to survive. It's the public that
funds the cops and remember last autumn with Toronto Mayor David Miller crying poor.
Services were cut but somehow funds are to be found for the cops and while
Toronto is at it cough up $8 million for Tasers; something else Wilson wants the public to fund
to give his boys more toys.
Does Alok Mukherjee respond with a sensible argument describing the problems the city of Toronto faces
in it's budget; that there are far more pressing issues than giving more money to the Toronto cops knowing
that at least 769 cops that took home more than $100,000 in 2007?
No! Alok Mukherjee said this in an email to the media, "I am not surprised in the least that,
true to form, TPA President Dave Wilson has resorted to the “blame game.” I had hoped
that we would move on to arbitration as the means to solve our differences
as respectfully and as quickly as possible. Arbitration isn’t about blame."
"I find it ironic in the extreme that Dave Wilson should be talking about
respect and fairness when he shows absolutely no respect towards a very
important party, the public."
Mukherjee was apparently responding to an interview Wilson gave to the Toronto Star published August 13,
where Wilson spun the talks broke down because Mukherjee et al fail to recognize that the coppers deserve
to be the highest paid in the province.
Should this disgusting overpayment of the Toronto police occur what next?
Will Wilson want them to be the highest paid on the planet?
Wilson whined to the Star, "It's the largest example of lack of respect to our contribution to safety"
The Toronto Cops Contribution to safety - that's Wilson's argument - tell that to the friends, family
and loved ones of:
- Alwy Al Nadhir - killed by Police October 31, 2007
- Otto Vass - beaten to death by four officers August 9, 2000
- Byron Debassige - shot and killed by the police on February 16, 2008 (he allegedly stole a few pieces of fruit)
- Jeffrey Reodica - shot 3 times in the back by a cop on May 21, 2004
- Edmond Yu - shot by police while on a bus on February 20 1997
Wilson can then tell Jane Doe about the Toronto Police's contributions to her safety. Jane Doe was raped on August 24, 1986.
Jane Doe successfully sued the police arguing they had used her and other women as bait.
Madame Justice Jean MacFarland ruled in the Jane Doe case that "It is no answer for the police to
say women are always at risk and as an urban adult living in downtown Toronto they have an obligation to look out for themselves.
Women generally do, every day of their lives, conduct themselves and their lives in
such a way as to avoid the general pervasive threat of male violence which exists in
our society. Here police were aware of specific threat or risk to a specific group of women
and they did nothing to warn those women of the danger they were in, nor did they take
any measures to protect them."
McFarland added, "In my view, the conduct of this investigation and the failure to warn, in
particular, was motivated and informed by the adherence to rape myths as well as sexist
stereotypical reasoning about rape, about women and about women who are raped.
The plaintiff therefore has been discriminated against by reason of her gender
and as a result the plaintiff's rights to equal protection and equal benefit of
the law were compromised. [The police's] decision in this respect was irresponsible and grossly negligent."
Safety for the public is a consideration and one that Wilson and Mukherjee should
spend their time working on; so everyone is safe including the homeless, the poor, the mentally challenged.
Everyone! Instead they play the blame game and it's the people of Toronto that suffer because of these childish antics.
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