FATHER JULIAN MISSED HIS CALLING TORONTO'S NEW CHIEF SPENDS A LOT OF HIS
TIME PREACHING

The local seminaries must have been full up when young Julian Fantino was
trying to choose a career path more than three decades ago. Because it is
becoming clearer and clearer with each passing day that Toronto's new chief
of police missed his true calling when he signed up to became a law
enforcement officer in 1968.

What he should have done was join the ministry.

Yes, indeed. This is a man so full of evangelical fervour that every time
he opens his mouth these days some sort of sermon passes from his lips.

Fire and brimstone are now as common as semi-automatic Glocks and
nightsticks around police headquarters. It won't be too long before the
place becomes better known as Reverend Julie's Marble Pulpit on College
Street. Hallelujah! Touch the window and feel the pane.

The emergence of Fantino as a full-gospel top cop already has tongues
wagging (not to be confused with speaking in tongues) at full speed around
City Hall. In fact, the chief's increasingly moralistic tone on certain
social issues is said to be of more than a little concern to none other
than His Melness, the mayor Himself.

Several weeks ago, Mel Lastman actually took a pass on a news conference at
40 College St. where he and the chief were supposed to jointly raise
concerns about a perceived drug problem at city-sanctioned raves.

According to sources close to the mayor's office, Lastman backed out of the
media event at the last minute when he got wind of Fantino's plan to lay a
verbal tongue-lashing on parents who allow their teenaged kids to attend
the all-night parties at Exhibition Place. The mayor had, after all, both
spoken and voted in favour of the so-called Safe Rave Protocol, which
stipulated that the events would be supervised and monitored by police
officers.

Lastman, one source said, was prepared to do an about-face on the issue
after the chief raised concerns about the widespread use of Ecstasy at the
intensely popular raves. But the mayor wasn't about to start casting
aspersions on parents who, unlike most of the young ravers, can actually
vote for a mayoralty candidate in November. Fantino did his thing solo that
Friday afternoon. Lastman made his position known early the following week.

"There's a lot of tension between the mayor and the chief of police right
now," a City Hall insider advised Wednesday when Fantino appeared before
council to explain his position on raves. "The tail has been trying to wag
the dog on this one and the dog really doesn't appreciate it."

A lot of councillors didn't like it much either when, instead of simply
answering questions as he was supposed to do, Fantino started delivering a
sermon similar to the one he'd given to reporters at police headquarters 10
days earlier.

He started by conjuring up the memory of a drug-related death following a
1988 Pink Floyd concert at Exhibition Stadium in an attempt to equate that
tragedy with what's happening at raves on the CNE grounds today.

"Drugs and drug abuse are the curse of this century," he declared, quoting
from a 12-year-old inquest report.

And then the chief began reciting the Gospel according to St. Julian.

"We as a police department, police agency, law enforcement people cannot be
held accountable for all of these issues," Fantino stated.

"Nor can we do parenting on behalf of everyone else who abandons their
responsibility towards their children," he added.

"I cannot be held accountable for why it is that children run to these
things," the chief fumed. "I don't want to moralize on this, but we have
very young children out at all hours of the night."

When some councillors suggested Fantino was overdramatizing the situation
and opined that raves supervised by trained police are certainly better
than the underground variety where no one has responsibility for safety and
security, the chief insinuated that council is promoting the use of narcotics.

"The drug scene prevails," Fantino responded when one bold politician
challenged his understanding of the rave environment.

"I expect a lot more than that in an answer," Councillor David Shiner
muttered after his attempt to get some pertinent information had been shut
down.

"And a lot less pontificating," one of Shiner's colleagues added later.

"He's trying to set social policy," complained another. "That's not the
purview of the police. Politicians are elected to do that."

It's worth noting that there have been rumours circulating that Fantino is
building a profile as Toronto's chief of police in order to make a run at
provincial or federal politics when he tires of the job.

So much for the separation of church and state.