The accusation from the Toronto Police Association is that while one their officers was lying bleeding in surgery from a gunshot wound, the mayor was off at a party.
Fair or not, there is no point in sugar coating what was said. It’s something the mayor refutes.
Shaken by the shooting of one of its own, the TPA is accusing Mayor Olivia Chow of not prioritizing the critical incident in which an officer could have died and instead attending a “social event.”
“We have a mayor who is, quite honestly, not supportive of the police,” outgoing TPA president Jon Reid told John Moore on Friday on Newstalk 1010’s Moore in the Morning.
However, the mayor strongly objects to this characterization and says she was in touch with the police chief in real time about Wednesday’s shooting at Yonge and Eglinton and monitoring the situation.
Reid, who represents 8,000 members, has a different perception of how things went down after 53 Division Major Crime Unit Const. Tade Davoudi was shot during a robbery arrest. One man is charged with attempted murder and two others are also facing charges.
“You know, we had the officer being shot and instead of maybe attending the hospital and supporting the police officers — and that goes a long way for morale knowing that our mayor is behind our men and women, particularly in a terrible situation like this,” instead it is “my understanding (Chow) was off at some other social event,” Reid said.
Ouch.
The mayor’s spokesperson, Arianne Robinson, offers a different perspective.
“Chief (Myron) Demkiw and Mayor Chow spoke immediately following the news that an officer had been shot,” she said. “The mayor sent her good wishes to the officer and expressed her gratitude to police for their ongoing commitment to keeping people in the city safe.”
As for the social event, she said, “on the evening the officer was shot, Mayor Chow was giving formal remarks on behalf of the City of Toronto at Fire Chief Matthew Pegg’s retirement event.”
Demkiw told Moore on Thursday morning that he too had been on his way to that same celebration when he got word about the shooting of the officer, who thankfully suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot to the abdomen and, thanks to surgery, is expected to heal.
But Reid said Chow should have been at the hospital at some point, like he and the chief were.
“I think it really does impact the priorities of this mayor and where she stands,” said Reid. “We are looking for continuous support from city council.”
Many councillors offered it but Reid pointed out that “we even had two of our councillors who sit on the Police Services Board … Lily Cheng and Amber Morley” who offered “zero” in support which included “not even bothering to put a tweet about this incident,” something he considered problematic since they “are the employer of our members (and) they don’t seem to care.”
Cheng and Morley have been given the opportunity to comment to the Sun, should they decide to counter what Reid said.
But the damage seems to be done. This relationship is broken. There is no respect for each other and that is unfortunate.
“They are completely out of touch,” said one officer of the politicians, adding they don’t realize “it’s crazy” out there in the street and there is major risks “every day.”
You could also see that disconnect as well from Parliament Hill, where when Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre called the out-on-bail accused in the cop shooting a “dirtbag,” he was met with pushback.
MP Karina Gould, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, said “whether it is in this House or whether it is outside, Canadians need to be extremely alarmed about the fact that, when it comes to their rights, his first instinct is to trample over them.”
Poilievre counted with, “I am more worried about the Charter rights of the police officer who is recovering from the gunshot wound. The city and the feds just don’t care, it just doesn’t bother them, it doesn’t matter how many die or if a cop gets shot. What is wrong with you people?”
As Reid said, all of it is “appalling and it has got to change.”