Liberal government’s heavily-redacted SIU report betrays Wynne’s transparency claims: NDP

Following endless promises to make government more transparent, the Wynne government’s release of a heavily-redacted SIU report on the shooting death of Andrew Loku not only does a disservice to the family of Mr. Loku, but to public trust in the administration of justice and our justice system, said Jagmeet Singh, Ontario NDP Attorney General critic and Deputy Leader. 

“First, the Attorney General took 30 days to read a report that only she could read. Then, while the Premier made some promising remarks about perhaps releasing this report, the Attorney General said ‘no’ four times in response to media questions about the release of this report,” said Singh. “Now, finally, when the government releases the report, they release it late on a Friday. They release only ten out of 34 pages — and one of those ten pages is blank. The pages that are released are heavily-redacted.”

Singh said that while New Democrats welcome the appointment of the Honourable Michael Tulloch to lead an independent review of agencies that oversee police conduct in Ontario, it does not address the Liberal government’s utter failure to deliver the transparency they’ve promised Ontarians. 

“The government likes to talk about transparency time and time again,  but when it comes to it, the government does not act on that,” said Singh. 

Singh said the heavily-redacted report leaves the public with more questions than answers about Loku’s death.

“Will the government commit today to releasing a full report — sensitive to the concerns around privacy — yet a report that actually answers the questions that the community has?” asked Singh.