Premier Kathleen Wynne says it is a matter of when — not if — the secret Special Investigations Unit report into the police shooting death of Andrew Loku is made public.

“What we need to do is sort out how to make the information in the SIU report public. All I mean by that is that where there are privacy considerations, where there are issues that need to be considered, I need to know what those are,” Wynne told reporters Thursday, as the opposition again demanded in the legislature for the document to be released.

“But I want the information that is in the SIU report to be in the public realm. It’s not a matter of whether, it’s a matter of how we do that and that’s the work that we’re doing now.”

Asked if that means releasing the report with the unnamed officer’s identity censored, Wynne nodded.

“It may mean that. Again, I can’t pre-empt that discussion. But I do make a commitment to work to find a way for the information that’s in the SIU report to be made public.”

Sandy Hudson, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, said it’s encouraging that the government is now committing to making some form of the report public, but said the group will keep pushing for all reports and all the details contained within, including the names of police officers, to be released.

“What is there to hide? For all of us, this is information that is going to be useful in holding the powers accountable,” she said, adding that it’s “urgent” the report come out now.

Under current legislation, the director of the SIU, which investigates death, serious injury and allegations of sexual assault involving police, is only required to submit his report to the Attorney General.

The government has always kept these reports secret, saying they contain personal information.

But both the current and former Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario back the release of the reports.

Current commissioner Brian Beamish told the Star last week that the names of police officers involved in an SIU investigation and other information associated with a probe could be made public “in circumstances of significant public interest . . . for the purposes of fostering accountability and public confidence in police services, and ensuring transparency in its operations.”

His immediate predecessor, Ann Cavoukian, told the Star Thursday that a “trust me” model simply won’t work, and that the reports must be seen by the public.

“People have a right to know what has transpired and the facts that have been documented in the report produced on this controversy,” she said. “The public deserves to know more, as they are allowed to do in other provinces such as British Columbia. Release the report, or face the consequences of the appearance a coverup.”

Three other police watchdogs in Canada — in British Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia — always make their director's reports public. In B.C., the document is often extensive, but does not include the names of officers or witnesses. It does include detailed information about witness statements and the analysis that led to the director’s conclusions.

“If the privacy commissioners, the people responsible for making the decisions over what should be private and not be private, are saying ‘Look, this OK,’ then why is it that our politicians are saying no? That doesn't make sense to us,” said Hudson.

Loku, a 45-year-old father of five from South Sudan, was shot dead by a Toronto police officer last year in the hallway of his apartment building. The SIU cleared the officer of any criminal wrongdoing.

A coroner’s inquest, which has yet to be scheduled, will probe the circumstances of his death and some of the information contained in the SIU director’s report could come out at that time.

As of now, there is no timetable for the government to make the Loku report public.

“I know that there’s some urgency around this,” said Wynne, noting a review of police oversight bodies, including the SIU, will soon begin.

“We are in the process of working on appointing someone to conduct the review, but that review is broader. The review is about a number of oversight bodies,” she said.

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“So I think that this piece of how do we make this information public will move as expeditiously as possible in the context of these other things but I don’t think it has to be sequential in every case.”

Progressive Conservative MPP Randy Hillier (Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington) said it was outrageous that the report was being kept under lock and key.

“This is not just another government report full of numbers and figures. It’s an investigation into why someone died — a father, a husband, a son, a person was killed. It is deserving of immediacy,” said Hillier, who blasted Attorney General Madeleine Meilleur for not keeping her eye on the ball.

“Can the attorney general explain to this house what was so important that it took priority over this investigation and justified her turning her back, not just on the family of Mr. Loku but on all of Ontario?” he thundered in the legislature.

But Meilleur emphasized that it is a priority.

“I want to assure the house that I was very well briefed — twice — on this report and that I’ve read the report,” the province’s top lawyer said.

“Public confidence in the transparency of police oversight is a priority for our government. We recognize that there are concerns about the current process. We have a responsibility to ensure that the public is being serve.”

She later added to reporters: “I support working with the director of the SIU to find a way to make the information in the Andrew Loku report public.”

Meilleur faced criticism on Monday for not reading the report, even though it had been submitted to her office a month earlier. That prompted calls from activists to fire her.

Hillier also sent a two-page letter to Meilleur Thursday, asking for a “statutory framework” for openness regarding the SIU director’s reports.

“While I understand that these reports may contain information sensitive to ongoing investigations or perhaps contain delicate personal information of individuals who are subject to the reports, there are numerous avenues that can be taken to ensure sensitive information is protected while still providing openness and transparency of the report for public examination,” he wrote in the letter, obtained by the Star.

Clarification - April 26, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version to make clear that the reports that are made public by police watchdogs in British Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia are called director's reports and are a summary of the investigation reports.

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