Alan Milliken Heisey II, (born ) is a Canadian lawyer who was a member of the

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the primary public transport agency in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operating the majority of the city's transit bus, bus and rail services. It is the oldest and largest of the urban transit service providers ...

Board from 2012 to 2020 and served as its vice-chair from 2015 to 2019. Previously, he was chair of the

Toronto Police Services Board The Toronto Police Service Board (TPSB) is the civilian police board that governs the Toronto Police Service (TPS). The board is responsible for approving the annual police budget, defining objectives and policies for TPS, and hiring Toronto's p ...

in 2004 when it voted not to renew the contract of

Toronto Police The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police se ...

Chief

Julian Fantino Julian Fantino, , (; born August 13, 1942) is a Canadian retired police official and former politician. He was the Conservative Party of Canada Member of the Parliament of Canada for the riding of Vaughan following a November 29, 2010 by-ele ...

Early life and career

Heisey was born in 1954 in

Don Mills Don Mills is a mixed-use neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was developed in the 1950s and 1960s to be a self-supporting "new town" and was at the time located outside Toronto proper in the suburb of North York. Consisting of residenti ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, a suburb of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. His father, Alan Milliken Heisey Sr., was a

North York North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...

alderman from 1976 to 1980 and grandson of Karl Brooks Heisey. He graduated from

Osgoode Hall Law School Osgoode Hall Law School, commonly shortened to Osgoode, is the law school of York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the Law Commission of Ontario, the ''Journal of Law and Social Policy'', and the ''Osgoode Hall Law Journal ...

in 1978 and joined the firm of

Blake, Cassels & Graydon Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes) is an international corporate law firm with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, New York City, and London. History Blakes was launched in 1856 after Dominick Edward Blake was calle ...

in 1981. Since 1985, he has been a partner in the law firm of Papazian Heisey Myers. He was appointed a federal

Queen's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1993.

Public service

Heisey was a member and then chair of the Toronto Parking Authority from 1992 to 2001. He oversaw the introduction of the world's first wireless, solar-powered pay-and-display consoles that accept credit cards on Toronto streets. Toronto was the first North American city to replace its parking meters with pay and display machines. After removal of the meters, the remaining posts had bicycle parking rings installed on them, significantly increasing the supply of bicycle parking. He was retained by the

City of Toronto government The municipal government of Toronto ( incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city of Toronto in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its structure and powers are set out in the ''City of Toron ...

to represent the environmental group 'Save the Rouge' in the

Oak Ridges Moraine The Oak Ridges Moraine is an Ecology, ecologically important Geology, geological landform in the Mixedwood Plains of south-central Ontario, Canada. The moraine covers a geographic area of between Caledon, Ontario, Caledon and Rice Lake (Ontario ...

Ontario Municipal Board The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) was an independent administrative board, operated as an adjudicative tribunal, in the province of Ontario, Canada. It heard applications and appeals on municipal and planning disputes, as well as other matters s ...

hearing in 2000–2001. The hearing was stopped by the passage of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act in 2001, which preserved the Moraine from development.

Toronto Police Services Board

Heisey was appointed by City Council to the

for the period from March 2001 to October 2004, and he concerned himself with issues such as

racial profiling Racial profiling or ethnic profiling is the offender profiling, selective enforcement or selective prosecution based on race or ethnicity, rather than individual suspicion or evidence. This practice involves discrimination against minority pop ...

and the police complaints system. He was appointed as acting chair of the board on December 11, 2003, after Norman Gardner stepped aside as chair in June 2003 following allegations that Gardner had accepted a gun as a gift from a firearms manufacturer and 5,700 rounds of police ammunition from Toronto police officers. Heisey was made chair in January 2004. He declined to use the city's chauffeur-driven limousine, preferring public transit and his bicycle. A week after becoming chair, Heisey was the target of a smear campaign that began with the leak of an internal police memo. Heisey refused to resign from the board, and Justice Sydney Robins of the

Ontario Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently mistakenly referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal) (ONCA is the abbreviation for its neutral citation) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode H ...

agreed that the memo was leaked to smear his name. Gardner's suspension reduced the board to six members, paralysing the board as votes on important issues often ended in ties. Heisey publicly suggested that the province might have to take over the board when two board members left a meeting to deprive it of quorum. Heisey had said he would resign if the "dysfunctional" board did not regain its composure. In June 2004, he announced that he would not be seeking a renewal of his board appointment and told the media "The police board job is kind of like being a general. There's a peacetime general and there's a wartime general. And I think the peacetime chair job would have been quite manageable with my other responsibilities." The board later in June voted not to renew Chief Fantino's contract, with media reporting Heisey had voted against renewal. The board unanimously endorsed Heisey's recommendations to reform the Ontario Police Complaints system in September 2004. Heisey's proposal for a single tribunal to determine all disputes, civil actions and complaints concerning police, other than criminal charges, was not accepted in the 2005 Patrick LeSage Report on the Police Complaints System.

Toronto Transit Commission Board

In October 2012,

Toronto City Council Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The Toronto City Council 2022–2026, current term began on Nove ...

appointed Heisey to the

Board. He served eight years on the TTC Board, with his appointment ending in November 2020. He was elected vice-chair of the TTC Board in May 2015. He was acting chair of the TTC Board for the period October 2019 - May 2020.

Toronto Cycle Track Network

Heisey is an avid cyclist and an advocate for safer bike lanes. He was instrumental in the creation of the first network of physically separated bicycle lanes in the Toronto between 2010 and 2015 on Sherbourne Street, Wellesley Street, Hoskin Avenue, Richmond Street and Adelaide Street. In recognition of his contributions to the creation of the network, Toronto City Council ceremonially named the Sherbourne Street cycle track after him on February 10, 2015. On September 18, 2019, the City of Toronto officially named the cycle track in his honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heisey, Alan 1954 births Canadian King's Counsel Chairs of the Toronto Police Services Board Lawyers in Ontario Living people Osgoode Hall Law School alumni People from North York