Last Wednesday evening, Chief Vern White more than held his own in a televised panel discussion, as he often does, on Rogers TV's current affairs show, Talk Ottawa.
The subject was whether Ottawa should have a supervised injection site along the lines of Vancouver's Insite, the source of much public policy angst, as well as a Supreme Court challenge that last fall resulted in a unanimous decision allowing the controversial injection clinic to remain open, a blow to the federal Conservatives who wanted the program shut down.
On the television show - for which, I mention in the interests of full disclosure, I was the substitute host that night - the Ottawa police chief argued against establishing a supervised injection site. His views were hardly a surprise. White hasn't minced words about his position on supervised injection sites over the past seven years.
But even as he was making the case as the chief of Ottawa Police Services, White already knew that he was in line for a Senate appointment, which would be publicly announced two days later. Looking back, one may well question whether at that moment White was speaking as a public official or as a Conservative senator. In fact, one could take the argument further, that White's surprise appointment to the Senate, home to many a political crony, could retroactively colour his past viewpoints with a political hue undesirable in an independent public figure like a police chief.
The subject was whether Ottawa should have a supervised injection site along the lines of Vancouver's Insite, the source of much public policy angst, as well as a Supreme Court challenge that last fall resulted in a unanimous decision allowing the controversial injection clinic to remain open, a blow to the federal Conservatives who wanted the program shut down.
On the television show - for which, I mention in the interests of full disclosure, I was the substitute host that night - the Ottawa police chief argued against establishing a supervised injection site. His views were hardly a surprise. White hasn't minced words about his position on supervised injection sites over the past seven years.
But even as he was making the case as the chief of Ottawa Police Services, White already knew that he was in line for a Senate appointment, which would be publicly announced two days later. Looking back, one may well question whether at that moment White was speaking as a public official or as a Conservative senator. In fact, one could take the argument further, that White's surprise appointment to the Senate, home to many a political crony, could retroactively colour his past viewpoints with a political hue undesirable in an independent public figure like a police chief.