There's a "crisis of confidence" in the Durham Regional Police and an officer from Ottawa is involved.
According to a report in the Toronto Sun, Durham Chief Paul Martin has been stripped of some of his powers whilethe Ontario Civilian Police Commission investigates. Along with Martin, former Durham deputy chief Uday Jaswal is being accused of abuse of power and corruption. Jaswal is now serving in Ottawa as deputy chief.
The Sun obtained a copy of an order-in-council from the Ontario Solicitor General's office. It contains a report from the Ontario Civilian Police Commission that alleges Martin, Jaswal and another senior officer "may have acted in an overbearing, intimidating, harassing and/or tyrannical manner towards both sworn and civilian members of the police service."
It goes to say that the three "may have ignored, covered up, attempted to cover up, allowed, tolerated, encouraged, participated in or were willfully blind to criminal conduct and/or serious misconduct."
None of the officers are facing criminal charges and the allegations have not been proven.
CTV News has not seen a copy of the report. Jaswal was slated to become interim Chief in the fall after Charles Bordeleau recently retired.
On Saturday, Ottawa Police interim chief Steve Bell told Newstalk 580 CFRA that the police services board is gathering information.
“We are aware of the media reports, but I can tell you we don’t have any information beyond that," he said. "I do know that our police services board is working to pull any information they can together so that they do have some information to work from. This all generates from an Ontario Civilian Police Complaints Commission investigation, which is one of the civilian oversight bodies that looks over police. So in that, there is an oversight process to be followed, and for me to comment on anything as that process unfolds would be really inappropriate.”
The police services board is expected to name a new chief later this year.
