Support for police union is pure political calculus By: Editorial Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 15, 2022

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/07/2022 (894 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Consider the following not-so-fictional scenario: a labour organization, whose members provide crucial services that safeguard the lives of Manitobans, cries out for more resources during a time of immense crisis and profound staffing challenges.

How does the province’s Progressive Conservative premier respond?

Well, it seems… that depends.

If the organization in question is the union representing nurses — who have worked through the pandemic under unimaginable stress, in conditions so desperate that many have either been broken by the strain or have, for purely self-preservational reasons, left the profession altogether — the answer amounts mostly to platitudes and promises.

In response to the nurses’ ongoing plight, Premier Heather Stefanson has offered a pledge that more nursing graduates are on the way — E.T.A. a few years hence — and vague assurances of sympathy and support.

Pretty thin gruel, really, for health-care “heroes” who have endured seemingly ceaseless overtime demands, been forced into unfamiliar roles, and worked (until last fall) for four and half years under an expired collective agreement the province seemed disinclined to renegotiate.

If, however, the aforementioned labour group happens to represent rank-and-file law enforcement offers, whose bargaining agency is at loggerheads with the Winnipeg Police Service’s senior commander, Ms. Stefanson seems more than willing to wade directly into the fray.

On Tuesday, the premier took it upon herself to offer unsolicited comments relating to the current unease between WPS Chief Danny Smyth and Winnipeg Police Association president Moe Sabourin. Mr. Smyth, having earlier made remarks about recent assaults at The Forks that some characterized as dismissive of public concerns, was the target of pointed rejoinders from Mr. Sabourin, who used the occasion to call for an increase in general foot patrols (read: more police jobs) as a step toward addressing the rise in violent crime.

A day after Mr. Sabourin’s public lambasting of the chief, Ms. Stefanson, for reasons that remain unclear, tweeted in support of front-line officers, who “have done such amazing work throughout very, very difficult times.”

The premier was blunt: “We have their backs.”

Upon returning from a gathering of provincial premiers in Victoria, Ms. Stefanson doubled down on her Twitter tidbit, saying she wants Manitobans to feel safe, and that her government “will work with our front-line police officers … who are out there doing incredible work day in, day out.”

Not surprisingly, Mr. Smyth admitted to being “taken aback a little bit” by the premier’s Twitter-finger trespass into matters of civic jurisdiction.

All of which leaves a single, over-arching question: why? There was actually nothing inaccurate or particularly controversial about the chief’s comments. Violent crime is, in fact, not new to this city, and the city’s police force has a role to play in combatting it. But as Mayor Brian Bowman rightly pointed out, its root causes — poverty, addiction, mental-health issues and families in crisis — are very much areas of provincial jurisdiction.

So why would Ms. Stefanson choose to insert herself into the WPS’s ongoing internal spat? And, more puzzling, why would the leader of a government that has made it its mission to obstruct and frustrate organized labour side with the union, while casting shade on the same chief whose hands-off approach she vocally supported during last winter’s trucker-convoy encampment outside the legislature?

There’s only one possible answer: perceived political advantage. Clearly, the premier is aware of her party’s current polling trajectory, and is scrambling to find issues on which to campaign in next year’s fixed-date election.

In other words, don’t be surprised to see a 2023 PC campaign in which crime, safety and good ol’ law and order are front and centre.