The results from a review of the Independent Investigations Office have fallen short of what the sister of Greg Matters had hoped for.
Tracey Matters is particularly critical of a recommendation to relax a rule preventing the IIO from hiring anyone who has been a police officer within the last five years.
In its final report, released this week, the committee appointed to conduct the review recommended the IIO be given the discretion to appoint former police in "exceptional cases."
The civilian-led watchdog that investigates police involve deaths and serious injuries for criminal wrongdoing would still have to justify such moves to the Ministry of Justice under the committee's proposal.
So-called "special advisors" were brought in to help investigate the death of Greg Matters, the Canadian military veteran who was shot and killed by an RCMP emergency response team member in September 2012, the first day the IIO opened its doors.
The IIO eventually concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing, a result that has not sat well with Matters' mother and sister.
During hearings, Greg Matters' mother, Lorraine, told the committee there should be "absolutely no ex-police or current police," in the IIO.
"The IIO seems to have done a back-flip regarding its goal towards civilianization," Tracey Matters said in an e-mail. "How can you be totally independent and trusted if there are former/current police on staff?"
She went on to say she couldn't help but think the recommendation was made in response to a civil claim the family has launched against the provincial government, the federal attorney general and Cpl. Colin Warwick, the RCMP officer who shot her brother.
"It seems the government has protected legally itself by making this decision," Matters said.
During hearings, IIO chief civilian director Richard Rosenthal said two-thirds of the IIO's investigators have a civilian background as of December and that in two years it has achieved the highest rate of growth in civilianization in the western world.
While the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman's Office is at a similar level, "it took them 14 years to achieve that," Rosenthal said.
A bipartisan legislative committee made up of eight MLAs, and chaired by Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris, was established to evaluate the IIO in accordance with a statutory requirement under the Police Act to carry out a review by the end of the year.
Morris was the North District RCMP superintendent for seven years ending in 2005, when he retired after 32 years as a Mountie. The province's conflict of interest commissioner gave Morris clearance to chair the committee, concluding the nearly 10 years he had been away from the RCMP has provided enough time to loosen the ties.
Tracey Matters said appointing an all-party committee to conduct the review was a poor decision.
"It lacks total independence given the IIO will be owned/inherited by any party and they won't be prepared to make any real changes to how the system works until another 'Greg Matters' case presents itself," she said.
A better answer in her opinion is an independent Royal Commission or inquiry, saying it's what is needed "to understand where the cracks are in this broken justice system and how to fix it."
She also called for the removal of Rosenthal, whose has been criticized over personnel issues, "given our experiences and hearing and reading the accounts of others."
As of Thursday, 14 of the 24 investigators on the IIO staff have never been police officers, and eight of the 32 investigator positions in total are currently vacant.
And she supported a call to expand the IIO's mandate to include alleged sexual assaults by police officers.
.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
