u/nathancolquhoun

Today’s Sarnia Journal includes four stories arising from a 61-page Ontario Superior Court application record filed by suspended Sarnia police chief Derek Davis in his dispute with the Sarnia Police Service Board.

The record contains several distinct and independently newsworthy issues involving an allegation concerning media personnel, Davis’s employment contract, public funding of legal costs and his account of a longstanding Police Association labour dispute.

Rather than combine those issues into a single narrative, we have reported them separately so the evidence and limitations of each can be evaluated on their own.

Davis’s July 22 Notice to Arbitrate contains allegations and legal positions that have not been adjudicated. Where the available record does not establish something as fact, the stories say so.

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https://www.thesarniajournal.ca/news/less-than-three-months-before-derek-davis-was-suspended-police-board-signed-the-contract-he-is-now-seeking-to-enforce-12685160

https://www.thesarniajournal.ca/news/dupes-of-the-police-association-davis-links-suspension-to-years-long-labour-dispute-12685164

https://www.thesarniajournal.ca/news/davis-asks-police-board-to-cover-defamation-legal-fees-and-any-costs-awarded-to-colquhoun-12685149

https://www.thesarniajournal.ca/news/tracking-and-monitoring-davis-filing-reveals-allegation-involving-media-personnel-and-external-law-enforcement-officer-12685170

After FOI denials and an appeal, Sarnia police spending records show hundreds of thousands blacked out as “operational security,” with the hidden amounts nearly tripling by 2025 in intelligence and electronic-crimes accounts.

The police board is at it again, wanting another increase bringing their budget to $41 million this year alone. Just a few short years ago, before the now suspended Davis was the chief, the annual budget was only $27.3 million. I just cannot stomach the insane waste of resources in our city when we still have waiting lists for housing and people dying weekly. The only appropriate answer is for the board to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to get their budget under control back to pre-Davis numbers.

When an economic system treats human compassion as a disposable resource, the people protecting our most vulnerable neighbours begin to break. We are witnessing the devastating collateral damage of modern capitalism.

In this column I examine how political and corporate power uses the legal system to intimidate and exhaust working people in Sarnia. Organized communities can sometimes turn those tools back, but in the end real protection requires us building collective capacity beyond the courts.