Angry in the Great White North

At first glance, Jay Hope brings a lot to the table when it comes to diversity:

Jay Hope, OPP Chief Superintendent, is the highest-ranking black police officer in Canada.

Graduating from UTSC in 1979 with a BA in psychology and criminology, Hope is the head of the Ontario Provincial Police's (OPP) human resources bureau. During his more than 22 years with the OPP, Hope has taken an active role in operational policing, focusing on the recruitment of women, First Nations people and visible minorities.

In the 1990s, he served as a senior investigator for the Ontario Human Rights Commission. In 2001, he was awarded the African-Canadian Achievement Award and the Amethyst Award, the highest award to civil servants.

The problem is that the deeper you look, the more you realize that the only thing he brings is diversity. Over and over again, Jay Hope appears in articles focusing on black achievement. Now Hope can't control what elements of his life people will focus on. But then it seems like that is a large part of the focus of his life as well:

Jay Hope often feels like the Maytag repairman -- he's alone at the top.

The OPP deputy commissioner, the highest ranking black police officer in Canada, said there are far too few black officers being promoted from the rank and file to executive positions and speciality squads, including homicide, sex crimes and drug enforcement.

"We're severely underrepresented," said Hope, the keynote speaker last night at a gala dinner for the Association of Black Law Enforcers.

Fair enough, but what to do about this underrepresentation:

"It's not our fault; it's a failure of leadership to not have coached us and mentored us," said Hope, who got a standing ovation from the 650 guests at the $110-a-plate dinner.

Uh-oh. The victim culture? Does he see himself as a policeman who is black, or a black policeman?

[Former Ontario lieutenant-governor Lincoln Alexander] told the summit [on race relations] that racial profiling has long existed in policing and he was backed up by OPP Superintendent Jay Hope from the Association of Black Law Enforcers.

"This is not a new phenomenon, but it has been acknowledged. It has been said that yes, it does exist," said Alexander.

Chief said the vast majority of his officers do their job every day in a professional and ethical manner

Hope, a black police officer, said the summit is a step in the right direction. "There was a consensus that racial profiling does exist in policing," said Hope, who works out of OPP headquarters in Orillia.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't have the confidence that the people in that room, the police leaders, would not account for the things that they said."

Hope said his group wanted to make sure that racial profiling is dealt separately from the issue of violence in the community.

Does Hope believe racial profiling happens? It does if the black community tells him it does:

OPP Superintendent Jay Hope, with the Association of Black Law Enforcers, said he was heartened by what he heard yesterday from his colleagues even if some still don't accept racial profiling happens often.

"It doesn't matter whether (racial profiling) exists or doesn't exist," Hope said. "If the community says it exists, then we have to respond.

I bet that will endear him with the troops.

So the question is how to change the police culture so that it looks more black, and is more sensitive to the black reality. Jay Hope has an idea about that too:

At a fundraising dinner Saturday, Canada's highest-ranking black officer called on police forces to consider a new form of testing that would weed out prospective officers who may be racist. Jay Hope, deputy commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, urged police associations to broaden their testing of officers to include not only psychological and drug exams, but also "racial tolerance testing."

Hope also says there are far too few black officers being promoted from the rank and file to executive positions and speciality squads. He blame a lack of motivation and leadership from above.

Of course, based on what he has already said, you might worry that his test on whether a particular police officer is racist is whether someone from the black community says he is.

But the real question is whether Jay Hope has what it takes to command the OPP, especially when faced with the sorts of challenges to authority like that in Caledonia.

As much a Gwen Boniface has been criticized for inaction, Jay Hope might be too much action!

The head of the police riot squad that beat up striking workers at Queen's Park says physical force was needed because the provincial government could have been "overthrown," an inquiry has heard.

If the Progressive Conservative goveminent [sic] couldn't get all of its members into the Legislature March 18, it could have lost a vote and been subjected to a non-confidence motion, OPP Inspector Jay Hope said yesterday.

With the spring session starting at 1:30 p.m., Hope said he thought it imperative to get all members in before then.

Lawyer Peter Howard, counsel to the commission of inquiry probing the violence, asked Hope: "What was so vital about having all the MPPs in by that time?"

Overthrown by a bunch of desk jockeys at a picket line? What will Jay Hope do faced with angry Natives in SUVs armed with rifles and machetes? Carpet bomb them?

Put aside whether it was the right decision. The fact is that there were repercussions from that incident. But what about repercussions for Jay Hope?

After the OPSEU Strike in 1995, the OPP were accused of using excess force, after beating a number of strikers at Queens Park. After that incident the [Mike Harris Conservative] Ontario Government said the OPP could no longer provide the riot control duties at the Legislature Building.

The funny thing is, you would think that after an incident like that, where the OPP ended up losing an important responsibility because of his decision, Jay Hope's career would have gone in the crapper.

But somehow, despite getting the Ontario Provincial Police tossed out of Queen's Park for whaling on the heads of a bunch of file clerks, he becomes the number two man at the OPP.

Is he on the verge of taking over the OPP?

One policeman thinks so:

If you stick around long enough you'll see Jay Hope get Gwen's job :wink:

That was in August of 2003. I guess we'll have to stick around just a bit longer to see if "opp2" predicted it right.

An afterthought: Gwen Boniface is an aboriginal Canadian woman, promoted in part because of her political optics (to think otherwise is naive). Jay Hope is black, and spends a great deal of time worrying about diversity, especially on promoting other blacks. He seems strangely immune to punishment for a poor command decision. With this sort of leadership at the OPP, is it a surprise that the rank-and-file seems to have performed so poorly in Caledonia? And what about the rest of the top ranks? Any law-and-order street cops among them? I wonder.