Four of Canada’s largest police associations are demanding action amid what they call “a rising tide of violence against police and the communities they protect.”
The statement comes just two days after the funeral of Const. Greg Pierchala.
Pierzchala, a newly minted member of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), died Dec. 27 after being shot while responding to a call about a vehicle in a ditch west of Hagersville, about 45 kilometers southwest of Hamilton. He was 28 years old.
Pierzchala was the fifth officer to die in the line of duty in Canada in 2022 and the fourth to die on the job in Ontario in the past four months.
“We cannot allow the deaths of five of our members to go unchallenged,” the Canadian Police Association, the Ontario Police Association, the Ontario Provincial Police Association and the Toronto Police Association said in a statement.
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‘We can’t sit by and do nothing’: Ontario Police Association reacts to officer deaths
“Enough is enough,” Mark Baxter, president of the Ontario Police Association, told Power & Politics on Friday. “We cannot allow the deaths of these officers and the violence in our communities to go unchallenged.
The associations, which collectively represent more than 60,000 police officers, say it is necessary to identify the problems at the root of the violence and take steps to address them.
“It’s troubling to have so many deaths in such a short period of time,” said Howard Sapers, a criminal justice policy consultant and former prison investigator in Canada.
However, Sapers said, “the issues at play are not new. They have been studied, talked about and debated for literally decades.”
Const. Andrew Hong, 48, of Toronto police was fatally shot at a coffee shop in Mississauga, Ont., on September 12. A month later, both Const. Morgan Russell, 54, and Const. Devon Northrup, 33, of the South Simcoe Police Service, died in hospital after responding to a call at a home in Innisfil, Ont., on Oct. 11.
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At a funeral Thursday, family members paid somber tributes to police officers Morgan Russell and Devon Northrup, who were fatally shot while responding to a call in Innisfil, Ont. last week.
Across the country a week later, Const. Shaelyn Yang, 31, of the RCMP was stabbed to death in Burnaby, BC while working on a mental health and outreach team.
“The loss of one police officer clearly means the loss of too many,” the joint statement said.
The associations say they plan to conduct reviews and research to better understand what is working and what isn’t working in existing public safety and justice systems in the coming “days, weeks and months.”
“Everything will be on the table,” according to the statement, “from bail to sentencing, to improving Crime Stoppers, to the growing and chronic shortage of police officers.”
Sapers said it was good to see the associations say their review will be expansive in nature, as creativity will be key to finding solutions.
“The concern is always that we’re going to react in a way that might actually make things worse,” he said. “When there’s a tragedy like these deaths, people tend to look for simple answers, and there aren’t any. Simply tightening bail isn’t going to change anything, just changing gun control legislation isn’t going to be enough.”
Calls for changes to the bail system were renewed last week after Pierzchala’s death, which OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrick said “never should have happened” given that the alleged shooter was out on bail and is banned for life from owning a firearm.
In a separate statement, Canadian Police Association president Tom Stamatakis said reforms are needed to address cases of violent offenders who repeatedly engage in criminal activity.
“We recognize that the vast majority of offenders do not re-offend,” he said. “There are a small number of prolific and violent offenders who continue to pose a danger to society when they are released, and we need to find sensible reforms that will deal with these cases.”
The associations say they intend to involve communities in their work, which they plan to turn into recommendations they hope governments at all levels will act on.
In a statement to CBC News, federal Safety Minister Marco Mendicino thanked the associations “for their tireless commitment to serve and protect their communities.”
“We support their ongoing efforts to identify best practices for employee safety while recognizing the needs and vulnerabilities of the communities and populations they serve,” he said.
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