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Police Chief Charles Bordeleau has launched an investigation into an officer who made headlines for publicly criticizing both himself and the police board chair in recent months, the Citizen has learned.

Const. Paul Heffler is now the subject of an internal investigation specifically for writing a letter to the editor published by the Ottawa Sun on April 29, in which he called police board chair Coun. Eli El-Chantiry’s responses to what police officers want “delusional.”

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Heffler took issue with El-Chantiry’s providing direction to the police force in his capacity as board chair and blamed El-Chantiry for some of the issues that are currently plaguing the police force.

“A fish rots from the head down, and in Ottawa, it is clear that El-Chantiry is that head,” Heffler wrote.

A month earlier on March 14, in a scathing indictment of Bordeleau’s leadership and what Heffler viewed as a toxic policing culture at the force, Heffler sent a mass email to all officers. He was not formally disciplined for that email.