www.thestar.com/obituary/ntos/article/107889Eric Silk, 96: Revived troubled OPP in 1960s
Nov 25, 2004 01:04 AM
The only thing Eric Silk did by accident was become a lawyer.
Everything else, from ironing out legislation to reorganizing the Ontario Provincial Police, was perfectly calculated.
The first civilian commissioner of the OPP died Tuesday in Streetsville at 96 — but not before bringing order to a police force on the brink of collapse.
"He took hold of it and did a great job of bringing the provincial police back," recalls Jocko Thomas, his friend and a former crime reporter. "It was at rock bottom."
Mr. Silk had hoped to become a surveyor.
But thanks to an administrative error, he was accidentally enrolled in law school. Since the school refused to issue a refund, he had to follow the fees — and switch dreams. Mr. Silk had not even turned 30 before he found a job as a lawyer in the attorney-general's office. From there, he unleashed his flair for organization on a welter of legislation. He compiled the Revised Statutes of Ontario, polished the Coroner's Act, helped put together the Unsatisfied Judgments Fund and found ways to make the courts more efficient.
Then attorney-general Fred Cass saw a man who could put an even bigger house in order.
By the early 1960s, the OPP was nearly paralyzed by mass resignations, mismanagement and low morale after the service was linked to organized crime. When Mr. Silk's name first surfaced as a candidate for commissioner, it unleashed another torrent of controversy. Critics claimed politicians and lawyers had no business at the helm of the province's top police body.
Undaunted, Cass appointed Mr. Silk commissioner in 1963. Mr. Silk didn't waste a minute.
"Their headquarters here in Toronto was in an old house," recalls Clare Westcott, former Toronto police commissioner and aide to former premier Bill Davis. "Their offices around the province were dumps."
Mr. Silk wanted to build OPP detachments along highways, not only to give officers better access to communities, but also pride in their jobs. Protocol required that he gain approval from Queen's Park, find the funds from the treasury office and request that public works begin construction. But Mr. Silk knew the bureaucracy too well.
"Eric went out and hired a contractor and built them himself," Westcott says.
That's not to say the man who served as a page in the Legislature at 13 didn't know a thing or two about politics. When it came to convincing politicians to get behind new projects, few were smoother than Mr. Silk.
"Eric knew the drill at Queen's Park," Westcott says. "He knew how to do things and sometimes upset a few people."
Including old friends.
"I took a lot of cursing from him sometimes," Westcott says. "But he was a good guy."
Mr. Silk went on to guide the OPP through a major reorganization in the 1960s.
A decade after taking the helm, Mr. Silk honoured a pledge once made to the attorney-general. "I told him that to do the job properly would require 10 years," he once told the Star, "and that's how long I've been commissioner." He retired in 1973.
Predeceased by his wife Barbara, Mr. Silk leaves children Barbara, Michael and Robert.
