26 July 2007
Private Police Under Scrutiny
Some labour leaders and politicians are making plans to try to
hold Canadian private police forces more accountable.
Bill Brehl, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, Maintenance of Way Employees Division, told the Georgia Straight that a
4 Aug 2007 meeting will address the special powers of private police and decide how best to put the issue before
Parliament. NDP MPs have agreed to attend the meeting, and several B.C. MLAs and labour leaders have invitations pending.
"We're really pushing hard to get the federal government involved to look at this," Brehl said. He added that questions of
jurisdiction and conflict of interest need to be examined.
On 29 May 2007, Canadian Pacific Railway Police arrested six CPR employees on a picket line in Coquitlam. "The
picketers were preventing a fuel truck from entering our facility," Breanne Feigel of CPR media relations said. All charges were
dismissed the following day.
In late May, B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair called for a public inquiry into the special powers granted to private
police forces in Canada. "When you have a company running a police force with all the rights of the RCMP and no public scrutiny,
it's a situation with abuse written all over it," Sinclair told the Straight .
On 31 May 2007, the Teamsters Union filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of its members against CPR. The plaintiffs are seeking
damages for false arrest and imprisonment, assault and battery, and unlawful interference with charter rights, according to the case's
writ of summons. The railway maintenance workers have been on strike against CPR since 15 May 2007.
NDP MP and transport critic Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster) told the Straight that any inquiry the government makes
must investigate both whether or not CPR actually ordered its officers to take aggressive action against the picketers "and then
the extent to which private police forces have powers today and whether that is appropriate in a society based on rights".
The two major private police forces in Canada are run by CPR and Canadian National Railways. According to Kelli Svendsen, a CNR
spokesperson, they operate with the same authority as public police forces in Canada. Their legal authority is provided for in the
Canadian Transportation Act and the Criminal Code of Canada.
Feigel told the Straight that under the Transportation Act, the powers CPR officers have are limited to protecting railway property. As
a private police force, officers are accountable to the Canadian Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.
Asked about the arrests, Feigel told the Straight: "It is illegal to block or obstruct access to private property, and the
union was very well aware of this."
According to Brehl, many B.C. politicians have expressed interest in the matter since the initial call for a public inquiry, including
NDP MLA Raj Chouhan (Burnaby-Edmonds), Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal (Newton-North Delta), and Conservative MP
Nina Grewal (Fleetwood-Port Kells). And so the issue transcends political lines, he added.
"Come September, when Parliament sits again, I would expect some sort of act will be taken by the Conservative government,"
Brehl said.
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