The NDP government recently appointed a former Winnipeg detective to head Manitoba’s police complaints agency, leading to questions about why the province is one of the only ones in Canada that hires former officers in these roles.
The Law Enforcement Review Agency is the sole public body in Manitoba to which individuals can file a complaint about the conduct of a municipal police officer.
A cabinet order dated May 15 appointed former Winnipeg police detective Harmen Wouda as the new commissioner of the agency.
“Oversight is all about public confidence,” said Ian Scott, who served as director of Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit — that province’s police watchdog agency — from 2008 to 2013.
“The way to facilitate public confidence is to have a civilian leader to ensure that there’s really no conflict involved.”
The Manitoba agency’s latest annual report showed 89 per cent of the complaints filed to LERA involved a Winnipeg police officer, which Scott says raises further concerns.
“If I were a Winnipeg resident, I would be skeptical of hiring a Winnipeg former police officer to be involved in civilian oversight of policing, within Winnipeg,” he said.
It’s important, he said, “to guarantee to the public that the individual making the ultimate decision is somebody who is not part of the police culture.”
LERA’s last commissioner, Andrew Minor, was appointed in 2020 and was a former RCMP officer. The agency doesn’t investigate complaints against Mounties.
A jurisdictional scan revealed Manitoba and New Brunswick are the only provinces with a former police officer leading a public complaints commission. Other provinces have similar police complaint agencies, but they are all led by lawyers, public servants or judges.
Jennifer Smith, the current executive director of New Brunswick’s police commission, was a police officer in the late 1990s to early 2000s.
Some provinces, like Ontario, have created legislation that bans hiring former police to lead agencies like its Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (similar to Manitoba’s LERA) or its Special Investigations Unit (a watchdog agency similar to the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba).
In Manitoba, the Law Enforcement Review Agency has been plagued with issues for decades. A 2022 CBC investigation revealed the vast majority of complaints against police were dismissed, and only two police officers had faced discipline following a LERA complaint in the last decade.
The commissioner of the agency holds extensive power. They must determine what happens with a complaint after it’s investigated. They can send it to a public hearing, dismiss it or take other actions, such as suggesting mediation.
The latest statistics available, from 2022, show 81 complaints were filed that year, 60 per cent of which were dismissed by the commissioner for lacking evidence. Another 25 per cent were dismissed because they were out of scope. None went to a public hearing.
Minister confident in hire
Manitoba Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said the province followed the advice of its hiring committee when appointing Wouda to the job.
Wouda had worked as an investigator with the agency since 2021, before being promoted to commissioner.
“Ultimately, their advice, as the hiring committee, was that he was able to impartially serve in his new role as the commissioner,” said Wiebe. “And we have confidence in that process.”
Manitoba legislation bans hiring former police officers as the civilian director of its Independent Investigation Unit, which investigates all criminal allegations against police.
Wiebe said he couldn’t comment on changing any legislation involving LERA, citing the blackout on government announcements because of the Tuxedo byelection on June 18.
“There’s certainly best practices that we can learn from,” he said. “And there’s ways that we can improve the system where we’re certainly open to moving in that direction.”
Wouda did not respond to an interview request.