A former colleague of interim OPP Comissioner Brad Blair is defending him against Premier Doug Ford’s suggestion that his letter Tuesday night asking the Ontario ombudsman to probe the controversial hiring of Toronto police Supt. Ron Taverner was “sour grapes.”

Recently retired Nishnawbe-Aski police chief Terry Armstrong has known Blair for more than three decades — they met in their twenties as rookie OPP officers at detachments in northwestern Ontario, Blair at Red Lake and Armstrong at Ear Falls.

“Brad is a pretty well put together guy, he wouldn’t make a rash decision,” Armstrong said when contacted by the Star. “In my mind it wouldn’t be Brad to do this out of haste or do this out of animosity or vengeance or any of those things.”

Armstrong, who retired from the OPP in 2010 to become a deputy chief in the Treaty 3 police service, says in his view, Blair burned his bridges with the OPP when he submitted the letter, but he was not surprised that Blair made the decision he did.

“If he doesn’t say something who is going to? If he doesn’t put in the complaint who will? He’s doing it because it is the right thing to do for all the men and women that police the province of Ontario through the OPP,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong said when they were young officers he would not have thought Blair would eventually reach the highest ranks of the OPP — and Blair probably thought the same of him becoming the Nishnawbe-Aski police chief.

But, he said, Blair’s view was, rather than sit back and complain if things were not being done properly, he’d “take the bull by the horns.

“Rather than complain about your sergeant, become the sergeant and try and be a good one ... get to the points where you can make the decisions that count. He climbed through the ranks because he wanted to make a difference.”

Armstrong described Blair as a smart, caring, hard-working and down-to-earth officer — and said that did not change as he got promoted, eventually becoming the commander of what was then known as the Aboriginal Policing Bureau. In 2011, Blair became commander of the central region.

In 2013, he was made one of four deputy commissioners and put in charge of several bureaus including traffic safety and operational support — a role in which he frequently spoke about the dangers of reckless, impaired and distracted driving — as well as security planning for major events including the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games.

Blair, who is from Essex, Ont graduated from the University of Windsor with a degree in sociology. He is not related to Bill Blair, the former Toronto chief of police and current federal minister of border security and organized crime reduction.

“I know Brad is very proud to be an OPP member and always has been,” he said.

Michael Armstrong, Terry’s brother, retired from the OPP in 2014 as a chief superintendent in charge of the organized crime division. He got to know Brad Blair when he was running the north west Ontario region and Blair was in charge of the Aboriginal Policing Bureau.

Michael Armstrong described Blair as a good and “conscientious” colleague who seems to have been motivated to submit the letter he did by the circumstances he was placed in. Armstrong said he was not aware of any political motivations or axes Blair might have to grind with the Progressive Conservatives.

“There is a personal cost to doing this ... I don’t think it is something you do lightly,” Michael Armstrong said.

“Realistically you don’t make this kind of complaint and be the guy they pick afterwards,” he said. “Brad’s not going to win out of this ... There is nothing to gain by him doing this.”

Michael Armstrong also suggested the decision could also jeopardize future job opportunities for Blair at other police forces.

If a person is disappointed at being passed over, he said, the normal course is to retire and go elsewhere, he said.

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Michael Armstrong said it was also unprecedented that a former commissioner would publicly weigh in on the appointment of a new commissioner, as Chris Lewis did when he criticized the appointment, describing it as “a travesty.”

“You don’t want to drag the organization through this type of thing. Obviously people felt strongly enough that they had to comment,” he said. “For retired Comissioner Lewis to make the comments he did, he felt strongly.”

Terry Armstrong said he does not know Taverner, but questions his qualifications to head up the largest police force in the province. “What does he know about Indigenous policing?” he said. “You don’t just throw anybody into these positions. I don’t know Taverner but it doesn’t sound to me like he is prepared to take on the role of OPP commissioner.”

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