allegations of race-based comments <\/a>made in the upper ranks of the SIU \u2014 at least one about Erhirhie\u2019s case \u2013 but now they will have to wait, said his stepmother.<\/p>\n\u201cI was hoping for a bit more progress. I was hoping to be able to garner some more information,\u201d said Dolores Rosita Langer. \u201cI\u2019m extremely disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n
A complainant in the hearing is alleging that a senior manager said of a police shooting victim, that he was \u201ca black drug dealer who had it coming.\u201d CTV News learned through sources that case was Erhirhie\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The complainant also alleged that the manager described the tattoos of a black investigator as showing \u201cher as gang affiliated,\u201d and of an indigenous colleague, said, \u201cmonkey knows better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SIU denied in a statement to CTV News that the comments were said, saying it takes allegations of discrimination seriously, and that the senior manager involved did not have any involvement in the Erhirhie case, which was decided in a multi-step process.<\/p>\n
In a written response to the claims at issue in the hearing, the agency said the staffer\u2019s application is \u201cwithout merit and should be dismissed in its entirety.\u201d CTV News is not identifying either party pending further progress in the OLRB hearing.<\/p>\n
Inside the hearing, OLRB vice-chair Rishi Bandu was told the delay was because the employee was sick. Bandu said the lack of testimony was another unfortunate delay in a case that he said has been going on for two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe delay in this case is undue. It\u2019s been going on for a very long time,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s unusual for a matter to be delayed this long without any progress in the evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
He asked both parties to resolve outstanding issues and make sure that the next hearing, on April 7, would go more smoothly.<\/p>\n
Over at the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Erhirhie family is challenging the decision by the SIU not to charge the officer involved in the shooting of Moses Erhirhie, 35, in Markham in July 2022.<\/p>\n
Videos obtained by CTV News show multiple angles of the incident, where Erhirhie is apparently urinating in a snowbank when he is approached by an officer with the York Regional Police.<\/p>\n
After a short conversation, the officer appears to grab Erhirhie, who flees away from his car, and then returns to it. Once he\u2019s in the driver\u2019s seat, the vehicle speeds backwards up the snowbank with the driver\u2019s door open, the officer hanging on.<\/p>\n
The car stops in the snowbank, the officer steps away, and shoots Erhirhie, who tumbles out of the passenger door. Officers found a gun in a satchel on him. The SIU cleared the officer, saying he was justified in shooting as he feared for his life. That decision was upheld in a Newmarket court.<\/p>\n
The officer didn\u2019t provide a statement, as is his right, and the SIU investigation didn\u2019t uncover why Erhirhie was stopped in the first place.<\/p>\n
As for the claim Erhirhie was a drug dealer, Langer said he did his time in 2018 for a drug-related offense in St. Catharines.<\/p>\n
A news report from that time indicates he was one of two people charged with counts including trafficking, though court documents appear to indicate that particular charge was withdrawn. A charge of assault in 2019 indicates it was withdrawn as Erhirhie was deceased.<\/p>\n
Langer said outside the hearing that since then, he was \u201cgoing straight. Moses has registered for school, and he had hopes and dreams of making us proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy stepson was no angel. But to urinate in a snowbank and be murdered as a result \u2013 justice must be done,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In an interview with CTV News, employment lawyer Muneeza Sheikh said in most cases, when an employer receives a complaint like this, they should conduct an internal investigation, and also provide assistance to employees who were on the receiving end of the comments or became aware of the comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is to rebuild the confidence in their workplace, so they understand that this is not a workplace that\u2019s toxic, this is a workplace that\u2019s safe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Given its mandate to investigate incidents related to police violence, many who are people of colour, the SIU has another reason to make sure that it\u2019s dealing with any potential incidents, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an organization is responsible for incredibly important work, and deals with people who are incredibly vulnerable so there is a public accountability factor in the work they do as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The SIU hasn\u2019t said whether or not it has conducted an investigation, saying that human resources are confidential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A legal dispute about the workplace at Ontario’s Police watchdog is airing allegations of harassment. An employee of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":504221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4717,2147,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-504220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115866336375157439","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}