Commitment and Tragedy

"The two people with the SUV were taken to hospital and the driver of the van was also taken to hospital where he was treated, released and has been taken into police custody."
RCMP Cpl. Julie Rogers-Marsh, New Brunswick

"I think traffic was his passion. He came to work every day and did a 100 percent job."
"He was always friendly, always a happy, go-lucky guy and he's going to be sadly missed."
Cpl. Darren Galley, Codiac detachment, New Brunswick

"As I got closer I noticed there were cars in places where they shouldn't have been on the side of the road. I noticed a lot of flashing lights and a police car that looked severely damaged."
"They [RCMP] put their lives at risk a lot. They have a tough and difficult job and don't receive a lot of credit for what they do."
John Morris, Photographer, passing motorist, Trans-Canada Highway

Members of the public are being encouraged to sign books of condolences set up at the RCMP detachment in Amherst and at the headquarters in Halifax. (Tori Weldon/CBC)

"It is extremely challenging to describe what it feels like when we lose one of our own. In the RCMP, we are a family and every employee in Nova Scotia and across the country is impacted by the loss of Francis … Frank as he was better known."
"[His actions on Tuesday] speaks to the core of what policing should be — involved in your community, looking out for people, taking the time to do those small things that would go a long way."
"They (Const. Deschenes' family] are dealing with unimaginable tragedy, and I ask that they be given the privacy and respect they deserve as they grieve the loss of their husband, son, brother and friend."
Assistant RCMP Commissioner Brian Brennan

In 2008, Nova Scotia Mountie Francis Deschenes came to the help of a 26-year-old woman near Truro, Nova Scotia. Her vehicle had come to a stop on railroad tracks even while a Canadian National freight train was oncoming at high speed. With the quick thinking this man was noted for, he pushed the stalled car off the tracks using his own cruiser to accomplish the feat with seconds to spare, saving the situation from becoming a tragedy.

A trail derailment could have resulted had the oncoming train collided with the car, and most certainly its inhabitant, the young woman, would have died in the collision. This event earned him recognition as a heroic figure, able to think swiftly of a solution to an emergent calamity. In 2013, by then having been with the RCMP for a decade of distinguished service, he became a recipient of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee medal, meant to recognize and honour "significant contributions and achievements by Canadians."

Since then he married, as recently as the past summer. He was in uniform, in a police vehicle when he stopped to assist motorists more recently, two days ago in south-eastern New Brunswick. The officer had stopped on the Trans-Canada Highway to offer help when he saw two people in a SUV trying to change a tire. His specialty with the national police force was as a traffic reconstructionist trained to investigate collisions and determine their causes; a member of the Special Tactical Operations/Tact Troop. Irrespective of the presence of his parked police vehicle, lights flashing as a warning, a driver of a van heedlessly crashed into the cruiser and the SUV, killing Const. Deschenes immediately.

Const.Deschenes, 35, formerly a member of the RCMP's musical ride program, was stationed in Amherst, Nova Scotia, involved in efforts to inform the public that legislation existed in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick requiring drivers to slow down and move over whenever they see emergency vehicles stopped along the highway. It is a supreme irony that this dedicated police officer, who took an especial role with respect to traffic safety would have lost his life while helping members of the public, by the very vehicular homicide he was attempting to alert drivers to.

Flags outside the Amherst RCMP detachment were at half-mast on Wednesday. (Tori Weldon/CBC)

To Serve and Protect

"If an officer's misconduct is likely to lead to dismissal, the suspension should be without pay."
"The practice of continuing to pay an officer who has committed serious misconduct creates the appearance that the police [force] does not view the misconduct as seriously as it should, and this can lower the reputation of policing."
Peter Rosenthal, policing expert, professor, University of Toronto

"[...If] they're caught holding a smoking gun [unpaid suspensions should be an option."
"If it appears like a person is almost certain to be convicted, it doesn't make sense that they continue to draw a paycheque."
"I can't fathom why Ontario doesn't get on board with what other provinces are doing."
David MacAlister, criminology expert, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia

Former Waterloo police officer Craig Markham publicly thanked Waterloo Police for the "nice gift" permitting him to "sit home, take courses, travel and play lots of golf", during a three-year suspension when he was paid his normal salary for that period, amounting to $350,000 -- for an unscheduled vacation, as he put it. He would have preferred to be working, even if, during the time  he was under suspicion before his case was heard, he would have been given menial tasks to perform.

Suspension, under suspicion of having behaved outside the law, even if suspended officers still receive their full pay, isn't popular with police officers, but it's the way things are done in Ontario. There are 53 police services in the province. An investigative journalist discovered that during a period of three weeks beginning in July and going into early August, the total number of officers suspended came to 80.

Most police services are not comfortable with detailing to enquirers, particularly journalists, information on such matters, and they withhold any personal information, such as naming the officers involved, the charges against them and the suspension length. Of the total, 18 police services affirmed they had officers on staff who were suspended with pay. The Ontario Provincial Police had 22 suspended officers, qualifying as the service with the most suspensions.


A member of the Durham Regional Police, Constable Glen Turpin has been suspended since 2008 on charges of assault and threatening bodily harm, along with Police Services Act charges of excessive use of force. Although he has been twice convicted, he is still on the payroll totalling $600,000 up to the present, while awaiting a final verdict whether he can remain on the force.

The average salary for suspended officers was $101,288.45, amounting to a daily cost paid by Ontario taxpayers of $21,946.73, for suspended officers during that three-week period when 80 officers were under paid suspension. Since the matter has come to the public eye the Ontario minister of community safety and correctional services stated the province would give consideration to amending the Police Services Act.

Dr. Rosenthal feels that paying officers who have been charged with serious criminal offences can result in a deliberate prolongation of the suspension process through verdicts being appealed. Back pay with interest should become routine, only if the suspended officers are found innocent of the charges brought against them. Dr. MacAlister feels that police officers, like any other citizens, should be considered innocent before proven guilty.

If "they're caught holding a smoking gun", it is at that time that unpaid suspensions should come on stream. The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police last year recommended the province amend the Police Services Act to permit chiefs of police suspension authority without pay for those charged with serious offences, and it is considered best for the force and the public to dismiss such officers.

The Niagara Police Services chief and OACP president Mark McGuire felt such an option would account for adequate responses in cases such as former Toronto police officer Richard Wills who murdered his mistress in 2002, but was convicted of first-degree murder only in 2007 so that while awaiting arrest and conviction he was receiving a full paycheque.

To place things into perspective, according to president of the Police Association of Ontario Bruce Chapman, there were 26,148 police officers working in Ontario in 2014. Of that number 80 officers were suspended. "I'm pleasantly surprised with the numbers and it shows the system isn't broken" he stated. "The vast majority of members will likely be back on the job", because most complaints are unsubstantiated. Unpaid suspensions would equate to considering them guilty before proven innocent.


According to the 2014-15 annual report of the province's Special Investigations Unit, five percent only of investigated cases led to charges laid against officers, leading to suspensions. The Office of the Independent Police Review Director which receives and manages complaints about Ontario police revealed in its 2013-14 report that of 2,697 allegations against police, 2,516 were unsubstantiated.


Those police officers, however, for whom charges are proven, are guilty of serious criminal conduct. Chatham-Kent Police Service Sergeant Robert Mugridge was suspended in 2014 on 47 counts of fraud over $5,000; his salary was roughly $99,000 annually.Toronto constables Sameer Kara, Leslie Nyznik and Joshua Cabero were charged with sexual and gang sexual assault in an off-duty incident. Timmins Police Service Staff Sergeant Dave Starcevic and York Regional Police Constable Young Min von Seefried also face sexual assault charges.

Peel Regional Police detective Craig Wattier was suspended with pay on charges of accessing and possessing child pornography, breach of trust and two counts of fraud over $5,000. Windsor police Constable David Bshouty chose to resign after suspension with pay on drug trafficking charges, but only following a year of paid suspension. And finally, Waterloo police Constable Deborah Bourne resigned in the wake of a dozen misconduct charges under the Police Services Act after collecting $261,000 in salary on her suspension in 2012.