Alan Heisey

Alan Milliken Heisey II (born c. 1954) is the former chair of the Toronto Police Services Board when it voted not to renew the contract of Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino in 2004 and has served on the boards of large municipal commissions in the City of Toronto.

Background

Heisey was born in Don Mills, Ontario in 1954, a suburb of Toronto. He graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1978 and joined the firm of Blake, Cassels & Graydon in 1981. Since 1985 he has been partner in the law firm of Papazian Heisey Myers.^[1] He was appointed a federal Queen's Counsel by Conservative Prime Minister Kim Campbell in 1993. His family has a history of involvement in local politics in Southern Ontario. His father, Alan Milliken Heisey Sr., was a North York alderman from 1976 to 1980. ^[2]

Public service

Heisey was a member of and chair of the Toronto Parking Authority from 1992 to 2001. He oversaw introduction of the world's first wireless, solar-powered pay-and-display consoles that accept credit cards on Toronto streets.^[3] Toronto was the first city in North America to replace its parking meters with pay and display machines. After removal of the parking meters the remaining meter posts had bicycle parking rings installed on them, significantly increasing the City's supply of bicycle parking.^[4]

He was retained by the City of Toronto to represent the environmental group Save the Rouge in the Oak Ridges Moraine Ontario Municipal Board hearing in 2000-2001.^[5] The hearing was stopped by the passage of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act^[6] in 2001 which preserved the Moraine from development.

Police board

In 2001, he was appointed by City Council to the Toronto Police Services Board and concerned himself with issues such as racial profiling and the police complaints system. He declined to use the limousine provided by the city, preferring to take public transit and ride his bicycle to meetings.^[7][8]

He was elected chair of the board in 2004 after Norman Gardner was forced to resign following allegations that he had accepted a gift of a gun from a firearms manufacturer and ammunition from Toronto police officers.^[9]

A week after becoming chair, Heisey was the target of a smear campaign that began with the leak of an internal police memo. Heisey refused to resign from the board and Justice Sydney Robins of the Ontario Court of Appeal agreed the memo was leaked to smear his name.^[10][11][12]

Gardner's suspension reduced the board to six, rather than seven, members. This paralyzed the board as votes on important issues often ended in ties.^[13] Heisey publicly suggested that the province might have to take over the Toronto Police Services Board when two police board members left a meeting to deprive it of quorum.^{[14] [15][16][17]} Heisey had said he would resign if the "dysfunctional" board did not regain its composure.^[10] In June 2004, he announced that he would not be seeking a renewal of his board appointment^[18] and told the media "The police board job is kind of like being a general. There's a peacetime general and there's a wartime general. And I think the peacetime chair job would have been quite manageable with my other responsibilities."^[10] Later in June, the board voted not to renew Chief Fantino's contract. It was reported in the media that Heisey voted against the contract renewal.^[19][20]

The board unanimously endorsed Heisey's recommendations to reform the Ontario Police Complaints system in September 2004.^[21] Heisey proposed a single tribunal to determine all disputes, civil actions and complaints concerning police, other than criminal charges.^[22][23] Heisey's recommendations were not accepted in the Patrick LeSage Report on the Police Complaints System dated April 22, 2005.^[24]

Later public service

In October 2012, Toronto City Council appointed Heisey to the Toronto Transit Commission Board, where he continues to sit as a member.^[25]

References