|
Police - PSA - Ontario Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) (4). Watt v. Ontario (Law Enforcement Complaints Agency)
In Watt v. Ontario (Law Enforcement Complaints Agency) (Ont Divisional Ct, 2025) the Divisional Court reviews PSA police complaint screening regime:C. Screening of complaints
[8] The statutory scheme for managing police conduct complaints set out in the PSA provides the Complaints Director with broad authority to determine how to address complaints. The initial step is a screening process, under which the Complaints Director decides if the complaint should proceed for further action (“screened in”) or should not proceed any further (“screened out”): PSA, s. 60. Complaints are presumptively screened in unless the Complaints Director exercises his legislative discretion not to deal with the complaint, thereby screening it out.
[9] If a police conduct complaint is screened in, the Complaints Director is required to either (i) refer the complaint to the chief of police of the police force to which the complaint relates, (ii) refer the complaint to the chief of police of a different police force, or (iii) retain the complaint for investigation and the preparation of a written report: PSA, ss. 61(5), 66-68.
[10] The Complaints Director has broad authority to screen out complaints: see PSA, s. 60(1), under which the Complaints Director “may, in accordance with this section [60], decide not to deal with a complaint made to him or her by the public under this Part [V]” of the PSA. A complaint may be screened out if the complaint is made more than six months after the facts on which it is based occurred: PSA, s. 60(2). A complaint may also be screened out if (i) the complaint is frivolous or vexatious or made in bad faith, (ii) the complaint could be more appropriately dealt with, in whole or in part, under another Act or other law, or (iii) having regard to all the circumstances, dealing with the complaint is not in the public interest: PSA, s. 60(4).
[11] The screening process is neither an investigation nor a hearing into the merits of the complaint: see Anwar v. Ontario (Office of the Independent Police Review Director), 2024 ONSC 3150 (Div. Ct.), at para. 15; Endicott v Ontario (Office of the Independent Police Review Director), 2014 ONCA 363, 373 D.L.R. (4th) 149, at para. 28. Rather, the Complaints Director is tasked with determining whether the allegations or issues in the complaint, on their face, fall within his statutory mandate and jurisdiction and whether the complaint reveals a prima facie violation of the PSA. It is not in the public interest to screen in a complaint that does not, on its face, disclose a breach of the PSA or the Code of Conduct under the PSA[1] (the “Code of Conduct”): Rules of Procedure, r. 6.5.
|
