TORONTO

Calling it a “smear campaign” steeped in “racism” to “destroy” his reputation, Toronto Police Services Board Chair Alok Mukherjee is demanding that Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack swiftly retract statements made about him over a poster he shared on Facebook.

Mukherjee protested what he described as an organized effort to oust him from his job. He said opponents want to thwart his efforts to introduce reforms to Toronto’s police force.

“I would very much expect that the Toronto Police Association and Mike McCormack will stop their campaign of destroying me immediately, and, if they care for public respect, make a full retraction forthwith,” Mukherjee said in an exclusive interview Sunday.

An apology would be nice, too.

And like we saw with the Councillor Doug Ford and Chief Bill Blair affair, the chair hinted at taking legal action and consulted counsel on Sunday.

“Toronto Police Association and its president are clearly on a rampage to destroy my reputation and me. Since Friday, Dec. 5, they have waged a smear campaign to sully my reputation and brand me as unworthy of being the chair of the Toronto Police Services Board.”

Mukherjee was reacting to McCormack’s comments to the media and a statement the TPA put out last week, which he said “besmirched” his name with “anti-police” inferences “I did not say.”

The furor stemmed from an online poster with the headline “I can’t breathe” which said “Americans Killed by ISIS: 3, Americans Killed by Ebola: 2, Americans killed by the police: 500+ every year.”

In calling for his resignation, McCormack was quoted saying Mukherjee “has no objectivity” and is “biased against policing.”

McCormack said Sunday he will not back down on his call for Mukherjee to resign. He said “the tone set by Mukherjee demonstrates that he is not fit to continue as chair.”

Mukherjee said as chair, he is free to post whatever he chooses and does not answer to the union. At no time, he said, did he insult or criticize Toronto Police.

Mukherjee added that assertions from the TPA president suggesting he is anti-police are wrong and he is insisting the comments to be retracted.

“The police association and its president have persisted in their campaign against me, and have suggested that I was somehow supporting the ISIS terrorists,” said a very upset Mukherjee, who plans on reporting to his Toronto Police headquarters office on Monday morning. “This is utter rubbish. In fact, I had made absolutely no comment about or in any way endorsed the poster.”

Mukherjee has said he “regretted” people found the poster offensive but did not apologize.

“The poster I had shared on my personal Facebook page about deaths in the U.S. from police interactions with the public came from an American source. It was about an issue that has generated a great deal of reaction in the U.S. from President Barack Obama on down and has been in the international media,” he said. “It was by no means intended to cast aspersions on policing and police officers in Toronto or Canada, but to generate conversation, discussion and reflection on an important subject.”

Mayor John Tory opined on Friday “this was an error in judgment” since “it just inflames situations here in Toronto.”

Mukherjee countered on Sunday that he was “surprised” to be thrown under the bus without a courtesy call. After 10 years of service, he thought he would get the benefit of the doubt.

As a columnist who covers politics and policing, that’s the part that astounded me. The haste in which Mukherjee was targeted by the new mayor and a new councillor without context or getting his side was astounding.

Councillor Michael Thompson agreed, saying “no one cares more for the welfare of police officers” and “this is much ado about nothing.”

Discussion about police trust issues are important since we do, after all, have a police officer before the courts on a murder charge and many issues over carding and race relations with police.

The chair’s job is to oversee police — not rubber stamp them. “I am an educator and use of difficult or even controversial materials for educational purposes is an accepted practice. That was my intent, period.”

Instead, he said, in an instant, he is being piled on. Since he arrived in Canada from India in 1971, he told me he has never been targeted in such a manner and will look into what protections he has as chair from “intimidation” and harassment.

“I am a proud Canadian and it has been important for me to give back to a country that has been good to me which is why I have spent years in public service,” he said.

Mukherjee said the “fake outrage and vendetta” is really a not-so-hidden agenda.

“The real purpose is to stop the changes in policing that I have championed and the Toronto Police Services Board has approved unanimously,” he said.

They are “changing our model of delivering policing services so that we are more efficient at a cost the public can afford.” The board is also concerned about “stopping the ever-increasing pattern of police sector wages and benefits and bringing it in line with contract settlements in other sectors.”

There is also a new approach to “establishing a strong policy for contacts between the police and the community in order to prevent those negative interactions that have brought accusations of discriminatory policing” and last but not least, “working in partnership involving the police service, the community and the board, to develop better ways of dealing with people suffering from mental illness.”

The TPA, he said, has resisted the implementation of these goals. Mukherjee said he plans to fulfill his provincially-appointed commitment until 2016 and, despite efforts to prevent him, will help hire a new chief and usher in a new era of change.

“The fact is, I have been overwhelmed by messages of support, including many who are members of the Toronto Police Association,” he said. “I have not received one complaint from any rank and file member for whom I have tremendous regard and admiration. Based on the messages I have received, these good people are appalled by the attack on me and my reputation.”

Mukherjee agreed there was an error in judgment. But not by him.