Toronto police Chief Bill Blair says he will ask for permission todiscipline more than 20 of his officers including two seniorofficers in the wake of a damning report on police actionsduring the G20 summit in 2010. Blair spoke to the media on Friday morning before heading to meetthe Police Services Board to seek permission to lay thedisciplinary charges. "These matters are taken very seriously and I'll be speaking aboutthat later today. I've got to speak to the board about it, but Ihave proposed to deal with those [officers] in a way which is quite frankly a little out of the normal the way these things aredone, but which is well within the law," said Blair. "And I thinkwe'll assure the public that these matters are being dealt withappropriately." The charges would be laid under the Police Services Act. Officersfound guilty could face penalties ranging from having their paydocked to losing their jobs. Blair said the number of officers facing disciplinary hearings isin "the high 20s." He also said that two active senior officers could face discipline.Two retired senior officers would have faced charges but are nolonger under his jurisdiction, he said. Damning report at centre of disciplinary move CBC News reported Friday that one of the senior officers facing charges is Supt. Mark Fenton, who supervised the "kettling" of protestersat the corner of Spadina Avenue and Queen Street West during theJune 2010 G20 summit. The chief's move comes just two days after the release of a300-page report from the Ontario Independent Police Review Director(OIPRD), which investigated the actions of Toronto police duringthe weekend summit. The OIPRD report on the actions of Toronto police during the G20alleged systemic abuses of power along with individual accusationsof excessive force. Open letter to people of Toronto In an open letter to the people of Toronto released Friday afternoon, Blair says the hearings will be openand presided over by independent officers of the court. "Given the extraordinary public interest in these importantmatters, and to provide public assurance, I intend to exercise myauthority under the Police Services Act to delegate the authorityto conduct the hearings to a retired judge, and to seek theservices of a former Crown attorney to prosecute these cases. Thesehearings will be conducted in public and the results made public atthe conclusion of the proceedings," the letter says. Blair was also asked if he planned to step down in the wake of theOIPRD investigation, but didn't answer directly. "I always accept my responsibility for the Toronto Police Service,"he said. "My job is to ensure that if there were deficiencies inresponse to the G20, that we deal with that appropriately. And ifthere are changes to be made in our training, in our procedures,our equipment, in our policies, then that will be done. And there'saccountability.". I am an expert from customcutstainlesssteel.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Stainless Steel Flat Bar , Stainless Steel Square Bar Manufacturer, Stainless Steel Strips,and more.
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