OPP veteran Martin McNamara (left) had questions. Chief admin officer Walsh is fired
When OPP union executive officer Martin McNamara was asked to approve some cheques last fall, he wanted to know what they were for. One, it turned out, was a down payment on a condo in the Bahamas. It was the beginning of a whistleblower uprising at the Ontario Provincial Police Association that saw four members taking their concerns to the police department their members worked for. The OPP immediately sent all the files to the RCMP and this month it has been revealed that the Mounties are claiming there has been fraud and deception at the OPPA. Today the union announced that chief administrative officer Karl Walsh, a former Liberal candidate, has been fired. Two other executives, president Jim Christie and vice president Martin Bain are on leave. McNamara was the first to complain to authorities about unusual financial transactions involving the union’s top brass. He had signing authority for the 6,000-member union and according to Jim Vanderlinde in the Barrie Advance was asked to authorize a $5,000 cheque last August payable to a consulting company he had never heard of. He wondered what services the mystery firm provided. Then came other cheques including the one for a retreat in honeymoon heaven. It was no honeymoon. McNamara and three other employees, an accountant, an IT manager and a human resouces officer are the sources of the RCMP case
