Gerry McNeilly (born 1950s) is a lawyer who was the

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Office of the Independent Police Review Director The Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD; ) is an independent Civilian police oversight agency, civilian oversight agency that handles public complaints regarding police conduct in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadi ...

(OIPRD) from its creation in 2008 (opened 19 October 2009) to 1 April 2019 when the position was filled in an interim capacity by the previous deputy director Sylvana Capogreco. The OIPRD is a civilian body operating under

Attorney General of Ontario The Attorney General of Ontario is the chief legal adviser to His Majesty the King in Right of Ontario and, by extension, the Government of Ontario. The Attorney General is a senior member of the Executive Council of Ontario (the cabinet) and ...

with powers invested through Public Inquiries Act to investigate complaints about municipal police forces and the

Ontario Provincial Police The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. Under its provincial mandate, the OPP patrols provincial highways and waterways, protects provincial government buildings and officials, patrols unincorpo ...

Education

McNeilly graduated from

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

(Bachelor of Arts) and Queen's University (Bachelor of Laws).

Career

Prior to his current position, McNeilly served in legal roles in the provinces of

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

and

. He was Executive Director of Legal Aid Manitoba 1999–2008, Chair of the Board of Inquiry for the

Ontario Human Rights Tribunal , logo = , logo_width = , logo_caption = , formed = , dissolved = , jurisdiction = Province of Ontario , headquarters = 25 Grosvenor Street Toronto, Ontario , minister1_name = Attorney General ...

1995–1999, Justice of the Peace (Ontario), and Deputy Provincial Judge (Ontario). On 4 September 2019, he was appointed as one of the foreign experts to Hong Kong's

Independent Police Complaints Council The Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) is a civilian body of the Government of Hong Kong, part of the two-tier system in which the Hong Kong Police Force investigates complaints made by the public against its members and the IPCC ...

(IPCC) to help ensure the IPCC's probe into allegations of police brutality during recent unrest in Hong Kong was credible and free of bias. On 11 December 2019, he and other foreign experts resigned because "a crucial shortfall was evident in the powers, capacity and independent investigative capability of IPCC."

Office of the Independent Police Review Director

McNeilly's role as Director of OIPRD began in 2008. The ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'' described the OIPRD as an "arm's-length civilian agency" operated under the

. As Office Director, McNeilly can order police investigations, searches, seizures, and can "subpoena documents and witnesses, including chiefs of police" under the Public Inquiries Act. He can recommend, but not order disciplinary action against officers or that police procedure be changed. Prior to the creation of the Office, complaints about police were "handled internally" by police departments. In its first six months the OIPRD handled 2,400 complaints. One of his largest and highest-profile investigations was the review of police conduct during the 2010 G-20 Toronto summit in response to 300 complaints. McNeilly was the lead author on the OIPRD's 208-page report entitled "Broken Trust: Indigenous People and the Thunder Bay Police Service" which was released in December 2018. The report concluded that TBPS needed to "improve its relationship with Indigenous communities" and that it needs to "ensure that its investigations are timely, effective and non-discriminatory.

Controversy

The position of the OIRPD director was assumed by the prior deputy director Sylvana Capogreco in an interim capacity effective 1 April 2019. The decision to end his directorship before finding a permanent replacement raises questions as to its relation to the Divisional Court finding that he changed the decision of a complaint against Toronto Police Service (TPS) Constable Chris Howes from substantiated to unsubstantiated after he had communications with the TPS outside of the complaint process."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McNeilly, Gerry Lawyers in Ontario York University alumni Queen's University at Kingston alumni Black Canadian lawyers