Cornwall Ontario – Danny Aikman is a wee fellow. He made his way through giants to eventually become police chief of the CCPS. (was there any truth that he only would accept a Deputy Chief that was shorter than he was which was how Ms Spowart got the position?)
Oddly enough his start sadly is becoming the worst of the status quo.
After our story about the CCPS lying about running the Chief Parkinson Retirement Party (LINK) and then the near farcical drama of a pageant run at taxpayer expense to drum in himself and new Deputy Chief Shawna Spowart, they are still refusing some basic info that the public clearly has a right to know.
The Parkinson Retirement Party sponsor list. Why on earth would a police force refuse to issue the amounts and list of sponsors? The CCPS Police in media reports PRESENTED over $20,000 to the charity that Chief Parkinson was chair of (kind of a conflict of interest, at least optically) which also showed that the charity was in fact not running the event as they stated.
Is it because of influence peddling? IE The City’s high priced legal firm BLG slushing over $2500 for the event? Is it because some of the funds from the event paid for the NAV Can event to bring in Aikman and Spowart?
With complaints coming to this newspaper that officers were forced to attend the swearing in and some were even paid at taxpayer expense why hide the cost? (the CCPS denied paying officers to attend, at least sort of suggesting that some were rescheduled) Did NAV cut a special deal for the police and could that too be considered influence peddling, especially when you look at how much biz new mayor Bernadette Clement has swung by her favorite hen hole?
Cornwall residents spend over $50,000.00 per day on policing. That’s over $1 per person with a per capita nearly on par with Toronto!
Surely a daily police blotter would be a reasonable expectation. For some reason the CCPS can’t seem to hire someone as capable as the Kingston Police do, but at least they generally have been providing some info on a daily basis.
Wednesday there was nothing. Based on approximate averages for a Wednesday you’d be looking at between 50-60 calls for service. Nada, zip. No crime reported on a busy week day.
It’s time that Cornwall residents get proper service and the Cornwall Community Police Service start actually serving all of the public and not just that donate to their seemingly private slush funds.
The problem we also have when a police service refuses to answer basic questions, be accountable and transparent is that the public loses trust in the services integrity. While we have a council with members on the police board we expect our elected servants to stand up for us, but that clearly hasn’t been happening and doesn’t appear to be for at least the next four years. Can even the possible optics of influence peddling be tolerated in a city and force of this size and budget?
What do you think dear CFN Premium Content viewers? You can post your comments below.
Photo: CCPS
Is there a governing body I can complain to? I don’t read trash newspapers in cornwall because they lack substance and transparency.
Jewelz you’re not calling CFN trash are you? 🙂
Let me clarify, I only read yours and it is negligent of the police department to censor information because they don’t like you. Are we in kindergarten? The facts are, they are responsible to share important info to the public especially the police blotter. They have a cart Blanche to do what they want. One day, they will be replaced as the old boys are dying off.
It’s so unprofessional Jewelz. I had a sit down with Chief Aikman in the Fall hoping that he’d be a possible solution, but sadly that’s not appearing to be the case. What he and Shawna just don’t get is how many people read CFN (over 1 million human pageviews monthly) but more importantly some of the people I interact with in other cities that just shake their heads about Cornwall, and a few projects end up not coming here too. This silly CFN conspiratorial boycott led by the City and including the police has cost our community millions.