WARMINGTON: Whine and swiss cheese over Taverner appointment drama
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First it was sour grapes, and now comes the whine.
The loudest moaning on the Ford government’s appointment of Supt. Ron Taverner as OPP commissioner is from the NDP.
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Seems they are attempting to connect the dots of a July 30th lunch between premier, Taverner and Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders and one Doug Ford had with OPP Commissioner just days before.
“I would think that that meeting with Vince Hawkes was one where the commissioner of the day had probably informed the premier that he would be announcing his retirement shortly,” Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath told reporters.
“Very coincidental then that five days later, Mr. Ford’s calendar includes a dinner with Mr. Taverner.”
Toronto Star Queen’s Park bureau chief Robert Benzie even posted on Twitter Etobicoke’s Posticino Ristorante’s impressive wine list.
But turns out the cheese served with this vintage was of the Swiss variety.
“It’s a beautiful story,” laughed Saunders at the federal government’s announcement of $7-million to help fight gun violence.
“But the truth is going to ruin it.”
The truth is that it was a working lunch with the then-newly minted Premier, who wanted to hear from key police officers what he could be done about the year’s uptick in shooting violence.
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When asked if the OPP commissioner’s job came up during the lunch, Saunders said “absolutely no,” and that “I wish I had time to discuss the OPP but I am the chief here in Toronto and I have gun violence and young black boys killing other young black boys.”
He said Taverner was there because the area he is responsible for has “40% of the city’s violence.”
Of course, the very notion there was something untoward is just an illustration the whole Taverner take-down attempt is nothing more than a nasty witch hunt against the Ford government.
Those who stirred this up were not this concerned about bias when Kathleen Wynne or Dalton McGuinty were premier.
Sun readers already knew the results of the July 30th lunch — I reported on Aug. 4th about how Ford was working with Saunders on a $25-million plan to fight gangs and guns — including $6-million immediately.
The money stemmed from what Ford learned from this luncheon.
There’s no evidence wine was ever consumed, but what was uncorked was a bitter war on Premier Doug Ford.
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