A Puslinch councillor is “disheartened” with a perceived lack of action from the OPP regarding anonymous letters sent to township staff and councillors, but the county’s top cop says there’s nothing police can do.
“I hope [the letters are] over … but there was not a lot of support there at all,” councillor Susan Fielding told the OPP’s Jack Hunjan during his Nov. 3 visit to council. “I was really let down a lot by that.”
The anonymous letters, aimed at all five current members of council and CAO Brenda Law, started arriving almost two years ago at the township office and the homes of councillors and staff members. The letters included all sorts of vitriolic allegations and what some councillors perceived as legitimate threats.
Hunjan, who came as a delegation to present crime statistics and inquire about possible areas of concern from council, said he would take the anonymous letter issue to OPP Inspector Scott Smith.
But Smith told the Advertiser the next day there is nothing police can do about the letters.
“There was nothing criminal in any of them,” he said. “The threshold for criminal behaviour is a lot higher than some would like it to be.”
Smith acknowledged police have “reviewed” the letters and that they may contain threats to the reputation of certain people, but he said there’s nothing threatening “persons or property.”
About a year ago, councillor Dick Visser told the Advertiser a letter he recently received contained death threats directed at not only himself, but also his wife and grandchildren.
“It talks about looking forward to many Visser funerals in 2010,” he said last November. “And it says [the writer] can reach out and touch me at any time.”
At that time several councillors said perhaps the police should be more involved because the alleged “threats” seemed to be escalating. When the story was relayed to Smith last week, he again stressed “there is no criminal act” in any of the letters seen by police.
“We’re not about to spend valuable police resources trying to identify the author of letters that don’t contain [criminal content],” said Smith.
