The current head of the Ontario Provincial Police is seeking a review of “potential political interference” in the appointment of Toronto police Supt. Ron Taverner as incoming commissioner, filing a complaint late Tuesday requesting that Ontario’s ombudsman probe the hiring of his successor.

The 11th-hour move by interim commissioner Brad Blair is the latest development in a roiling controversy over the appointment, and comes less than a week before Taverner, 72, a close friend of the Ford family, is scheduled to be sworn in as top cop of one of the largest police services in North America.

In a lengthy letter to Ontario ombudsman Paul Dubé, Blair asks for Taverner’s installation to be delayed pending a review of the appointment and makes serious allegations against the Ford government.

That includes the claim that a staffer on Premier Doug Ford’s team specifically requested that the OPP purchase a “large camper type vehicle” that could be modified to certain specifications and that the request be “kept off the books.”

Ford’s officials did not return repeated messages from the Star before 10 p.m., but senior Conservative insiders, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations, expressed concern over Blair’s allegations.

Blair’s letter sounds the alarm about various aspects of Taverner’s appointment, saying the allegations in the letter “raise a legitimate question as to whether the OPP’s integrity has been compromised and whether the public can have confidence in and respect for the OPP going forward.”

Julian Falconer, the Toronto lawyer representing the current OPP head, said Blair decided to come forward with the bombshell complaint within the last week, “amidst a growing sea of controversy.” The veteran officer, who has been with the OPP for 32 years, felt compelled to speak out “by a belief that the (OPP) is an organization whose credibility is worth protecting.”

He knows his decision to question the hiring process of his successor means he will “now be under no minor light of scrutiny,” Falconer said.

OPP interim commissioner asks ombudsman to review Taverner’s appointment over ‘potential political interference’ View document on Scribd

Blair was named interim commissioner by the Progressive Conservative government, via an October order in council, and he also applied for the chief commissioner posting. In the letter, he states he was viewed by members of the OPP as a “front-runner candidate.”

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The letter claims the decision to name Taverner as commissioner was made prior to a Wednesday cabinet meeting where the decision was said to have been made; that the job posting was “changed without convincing justification,” and that the hiring panel had “questionable authority” and the interview panel members changed at the last minute.

It also makes serious allegations about requests made by Ford when he came into office — that a “concerning history already exists between Premier Ford’s office and the OPP.”

According to the letter, that includes asking for specific police officers to be in his security detail — ones that Ford “would feel comfortable with.” Blair goes on to claim that Ford requested a face-to-face meeting over the issue, and said that if then-commissioner Vince Hawkes would not address the issue, “perhaps a new commissioner would.”

“Ultimately, the premier’s request was approved and implemented by the OPP,” according to the letter.

The letter also claims that a Ford staffer specifically requested that the OPP purchase a “large camper type vehicle and have it modified to the specifications the premier’s office would provide us.” According to the letter, there was a request that these costs be “kept off the books.”

Such a request, asking for “monies spent to be hidden from the public record” is at minimum a violation of the Ontario government’s financial policies, the letter said.

Blair also claims he met with Taverner in a Swiss Chalet on Dec. 2 to discuss the transition. He claims Taverner told him that on Nov. 20, following his final interview for the job, he ran into a reporter, who accused him of having just left Ford’s office.

“Supt. Taverner informed me that he asked the reporter to hold off on any story in exchange for providing this reporter with a first interview in the near future,” according to the letter.

Blair’s letter goes on to say that he does not know who that reporter is, but named a specific journalist who was believed to have done a recent interview with Taverner. A spokesperson for that news organization told the Star Tuesday night that the allegation was “false.”

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In the letter, Blair says OPP members “have shared with me their concerns that the process was unfair and their feeling that the independence of the OPP is now called into question.”

“The officers know the consequences to come: if the police are to command public confidence and active co-operation, they must have unfettered confidence of the people of Ontario. That is, the concern of political interference runs counter not only to the principles of a democratic society but also to fully effective policing,” Blair writes in his letter.

In the wake of controversy over the government’s appointment of Taverner as commissioner, Ford has admitted he did not recuse himself from cabinet when Taverner was approved but said he “had zero influence” over the decision.

Ford has insisted there “was no better choice” than his family friend, but he maintained that he “didn’t know that decision until the day it was made.”

“A transparent choice, by the way, that I wasn’t involved in whatsoever,” the premier said last Wednesday, stressing that morale is low at the OPP and Taverner will boost the force’s esprit de corps.

Taverner, who has 51 years with the Toronto Police Service, is a long-time unit commander in charge of Etobicoke divisions. Taverner was also close to the premier’s late brother, former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, and was often at Ford family barbecues and had informal breakfast meetings with both Rob and Doug Ford.

Critics within government have raised concerns about the Ford family relationship with Taverner, chief among them the fact that it is the OPP that is often tasked with investigations involving the government.

He succeeds Hawkes, 56, who retired earlier this year.

Taverner was unanimously selected by a panel that included Steve Orsini, head of the Ontario Public Service, and newly appointed deputy minister Mario Di Tommaso, who is a former Toronto police officer and Taverner’s former boss.

In a recent TV interview, Taverner said he had never before sought an OPP job before he applied to be commissioner.

Blair’s concerns come after another former OPP commissioner, Chris Lewis, voiced his concerns about Taverner’s hiring, telling CP24 that “the fix was in.”

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“There’s old relationships there, we all know it, and I think it was a travesty that this occurred … I don’t think it’s good for the OPP — and I don’t think it was a good decision on the part of government whatsoever.”

Blair’s complaint is not the first formal concern to be raised about Taverner’s hiring. At Queen’s Park, Ontario Integrity Commissioner David Wake’s office said a formal request for a probe into the Taverner appointment has been filed.

“I can confirm that a request has been made by MPP Kevin Yarde … and it is under review by this office. The office will have no further comment on the matter,” said Wake’s spokesperson Michelle Renaud, referring to the Brampton North NDP MPP’s letter to the office.

Renaud could not say whether the premier’s office had been in contact with Wake prior to Taverner’s hiring to ensure there was no conflict of interest.

“Under the Members’ Integrity Act … communication between the integrity commissioner and a member of the legislative assembly is confidential,” she said.

The controversial appointment dominated the legislature’s daily question period last week before MPPs rose Thursday for the Christmas break.

As iPolitics revealed earlier this month, the job posting for the OPP commissioner job was quietly modified in October, changing the criteria to allow applications from the superintendent level — two ranks below the initial qualification of deputy chief or assistant commissioner.

Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Sylvia Jones said the three-person hiring panel was independent.

“I have no concerns about the hiring process,” Jones said last week.

“I think the independent process did what it was supposed to do. We have an excellent candidate and I think when Mr. Taverner is in place Dec. 17 we will find a revitalized OPP.”

Di Tommaso, her deputy, was Taverner’s former boss at Toronto police, but in the new position reports to Orsini, secretary of cabinet.

“So I don’t think there’s any conflict there,” the minister said.

Last week, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, interim Liberal Leader John Fraser, and Democracy Watch asked integrity commissioner Wake to probe any potential conflict of interest in the appointment, with Horwath saying “people deserve to know exactly what the premier’s role is.”

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and it really looks like this process was put together to favour Mr. Taverner and I think that’s inappropriate,” she said.

“It’s very reasonable to suspect that there was political interference. I think reasonable people would say ‘something’s fishy,’ ” said Fraser.

Democracy Watch also wrote to the integrity commissioner.

“If Premier Ford participated in any step of the process that led to his friend Mr. Taverner being appointed OPP commissioner, then he violated the province’s government ethics law, and that’s why the integrity commissioner needs to investigate,” said the group’s co-founder Duff Conacher.

Taverner made $178,968 last year while the OPP commissioner made $275,907 — representing an annual raise of almost $100,000.

In 2016, Taverner accompanied Doug Ford and Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders on a private plane to Chicago to take in a Blackhawks game, part of a prize package purchased at a charity auction.

Sal Badali of Odgers Berndtson, the headhunting agency that “supported” the OPP commissioner’s hiring selection process, told iPolitics that “eliminating the rank requirement was done to broaden the potential pool of applicants.”

“It turned out that over half the pool of applicants were not at the deputy chief level.”

The OPP is one of the largest police services in North America, with more than 6,000 uniformed officers and 2,400 civilian employees.

With files from May Warren

Wendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing. Reach her by email at wgillis@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @wendygillis

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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