A new group calling itself the "Committee for Responsible Journalism and Politics" is demanding that Hamilton Spectator columnist Andrew Dreschel apologize for damaging the reputation of Jane Mulkewich. The group wants the newspaper to reassign Dreschel "to a less sensitive post" and also establish an ombudsperson to deal with citizen complaints.
David Cohen, former Dundas councillor, and Richard Allen, former provincial Minister of Colleges and Universities, both denouced Dreschel's attack, speaking at today's press conference.
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The group held a press conference this afternoon at Hamilton City Hall. They focused Dreschel's June 21 column in which he accused Mulkewich of rumour-mongering, and a follow-up column on July 9.
"In one column, Dreschel managed to drag three people through the mud, and then did it a second time on July 9 for good measure," charged David Cohen, a former Dundas councillor who spoke on behalf of the new group. He noted that Mulkewich had made a personal plea to the Spectator last summer asking the paper to withdraw their allegations, but got no response.
The latter column contained derogatory comments about Mulkewich made by Mayor Larry Di Ianni and councillor Murray Ferguson, both of whom sit on the Hamilton Police Services Board. Cohen said the two politicians "compounded the allegations" and should also be required to apologize to Mulkewich.
The Board subsequently suspended Mulkewich, apparently on the basis of Dreschel's accusations, and asked the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services (OCCPS) to investigate her. She provided an interview to OCCPS, but Dreschel refused to supply his notes or other information to the Commission investigators.
The OCCPS decision was made today and is being delivered to the Hamilton Police Services Board, but it has not yet been made public, not even to Mulkewich.
Richard Allen, another member of the new group and a former provincial Minister of Colleges and Universities, joined Cohen in denouncing Dreschel's attack. He said that Mulkewich "has spent her whole adult career, some 20 years, building bridges among various religious and ethnic communities in Hamilton". Several others from the dozen-member group also praised Mulkewich at the press conference.
Allen noted her 8 years as the Community Relations Coordinator for the Hamilton police department, and especially her role immediately after the fire-bombing of a Muslim mosque in September 2001 when Mulkewich organized meetings of religious leaders, politicians, police and other Hamiltonians - a process that eventually led to the Mayor's Roundtable on Strengthening Hamilton's Community.
During her police career, Mulkewich also initiated the Aboriginal Police Advisory Committee, and established the Hamilton Police Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgendered Task Force, defusing a highly antagonistic situation and creating a widely-praised model for police-community relations. More recently, she worked as a human rights educator at McMaster.
The statement of the Committee for Responsible Journalism and Politics, as well as a backgrounder prepared by them on Jane Mulkewich, and the two columns written by Andrew Dreschel are available below as pdfs.
