It shouldn’t be so hard to fire a dirty cop
Last week, an Ontario Provincial Police officer who had been convicted of multiple crimes — including rape, assault, drug trafficking and forgery — was finally terminated from the police force.
Outrageously, Jason Redmond had been receiving his full six-figure salary, even though he had been suspended since 2015. His suspension stemmed from a criminal investigation into drug trafficking, which he was convicted of in 2018.
In 2021, Redmond, a convicted criminal on leave from the force, was paid $121,047.96 in taxpayer money. As if this is not infuriating enough, it gets far worse.
In February, a judge found that Redmond had raped a woman while she was unconscious, and made a video of the assault to “teach her a lesson.” But following this conviction, Redmond continued to remain on paid leave from the OPP. In total, he collected 12 criminal convictions before the OPP finally terminated his employment.
OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique said that they had been trying to fire Redmond since 2018. Internal hearings pertaining to his employment faced multiple delays and appeals. Like the court system, it appears the OPP’s Professional Standards Unit is plagued with similar backlogs and wait times.
Mercifully, taxpayers are no longer footing the bill for this disgrace. But so many questions remain, such as: how on earth did it take the OPP eight years to cut the cord on Redmond?
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