The Wynne government’s proposing sweeping changes to policing laws, including stronger oversight of the system and making it possible to suspend officers without pay.

If passed, the legislation would also see the three civilian agencies already charged with police oversight have more power and responsibilities, including a requirement for the Special Investigations Unit to report publicly on all of its investigations.

 

(Jeremy Cohn / Global News)

The ‘Safer Ontario Act’ would also allow chiefs to suspend officers without pay in certain circumstances – something chiefs, and many in the public, have been calling for years.

Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Marie-France Lalonde says policing and society at large has changed since the Police Services Act was last updated in 1990, and that these changes ”will result in even stronger, safer communities.”