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Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services (OCCPS), an agency of
the Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services, misreported
hundreds of police complaints for 2003, painting a rosy picture of the
sham the police complaint system has been since 1997 when the Ontario
Government changed the Police Services Act and put them in charge.
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According to the Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services,
OCCPS is an independent civilian quasi-judicial agency responsible for
ensuring the adequacy and effectiveness of policing services in
Ontario. Ultimately, chiefs of police, members of police services and
police services boards are accountable to the public through OCCPS.

What does it mean? In short, the police and those responsible to
police the police answer to OCCPS only and OCCPS answers to no one.
OCCPS extraordinary powers under the Police Services Act are quite
absolute and in essence, they run an exclusive justice-like system
that is out of reach of law and that removes the Ontario Government
from responsibility for police services. This is quite evident from
the following excerpts from the Police Services Act.

     The Commission's decision is final and binding and there is no
     appeal therefrom � No member or employee of the Commission shall
     be required to give testimony in any civil suit or proceeding
     with regard to information obtained in the course of his or her
     duties � No person shall be required to testify in a civil
     proceeding with regard to information obtained in the course of
     his or her duties � No document prepared as the result of a 
     complaint is admissible in a civil proceeding � No statement
     made during an attempt at informal resolution of a complaint
     is admissible in a civil proceeding � The Ombudsman Act does not
     apply to anything done under this Part.

In June 2004, the Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant appointed
Patrick J. LeSage, former Chief Justice of the Superior Court of
Ontario, to lead the currently ongoing Police Complaints Review. His
mandate is to review all aspects of the complaint system that deal
with the role of the police only and excludes the roles of police
services boards and OCCPS.

The role of the police is investigating complaints while the police
services boards and OCCPS are responsible for transparency,
effectiveness and fairness. Mr. LeSage's narrow mandate makes it
difficult not to see the Attorney General's political motivation
behind it. The very reason for his review, the politicians and their
political appointees to the police services boards and OCCPS are kept
out of it.

Between 1998 and 2003, there were 16,435 police complaints in Ontario
and each was subject to what is called a complaint disposition process
that refers to what happens to a complaint from the time it is made
until it is closed and presumably resolved. In 2003 alone, there were
2,845 police complaints and OCCPS reported hundreds of them
redistributed among different police services province-wide, giving an
impression of consistency that is far from reality.

More: http://www3.sympatico.ca/milan.novak/all/occps_lies.html