Cdn-Firearms Digest Thursday, October 28 2010 Volume 14 : Number 154 In this issue: Re: Cdn-Firearms Digest V14 #152 BC deaths in custody Farmer charged with assault after attacking burglers with a hatchet online political party Re: CTV - Wendy Cukier selected as one of 25 Transformational Re: Time to pack it in? Col. Williams; the New Standard for Licencing Re: quebec RE: Farmer charged with assault after attacking burglers with a "Court hears how gang rivalry killed a 10 year old boy" LETTER: Gun owners should want to register firearms RE: Farmer charged with assault after attacking burglers with a TorStar - Are these cops above the law? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 10:10:03 -0600 From: Rick User Subject: Re: Cdn-Firearms Digest V14 #152 On 2010-10-26, at 3:52 PM, Cdn-Firearms Digest wrote: > Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:07:13 -0700 (PDT) > From: Bruce Mills > Subject: StatsCan - Homicide in Canada > > http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/101026/dq101026a-eng.htm > > The Daily > Tuesday, October 26, 2010 > > Homicide in Canada > > 2009 > > Police reported 610 homicides in Canada during 2009, virtually > unchanged from 2008. The number of gang-related homicides fell by 10% > from the year before, but still accounted for 1 in 5 homicides in 2009. U.S. murder rates continue to decline and are now around levels not seen since the 1960's. This is despite huge issues with organized gangs and illegal immigrants with criminal records. Their gun laws have been going in the opposite direction. Gun control in Kanada is not about public safety. Nor is it about guns. It is about control. Period. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 09:18:00 -0700 From: "Todd Birch" Subject: BC deaths in custody According to the BC Civil Liberties Association, on a per capita basis, you have a much better chance of dying while in custody in BC than anywhere else in Canada. The record shows an average of one death every three weeks for the past several years; everything from suicide, to hypothermia to gun shot. People here are teaching their kids how to survive encounters with the police, during primary interaction and thereafter while in custody. There is an atmosphere of fear and distrust which doesn't say much for public support of the police, one of Robert Peel's pillars for good policing. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, October 27, 2010 11:09 am From: "Dennis & Hazel Young" Subject: Farmer charged with assault after attacking burglers with a hatchet CALGARY HERALD - OCTOBER 27, 2010 Farmer charged with assault after hatchet attack http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Farmer+charged+with+assault+after+hatchet+attack/3731735/story.html A Taber farmer who smashed a suspected burglar in the face with a hatchet is facing assault charges. On May 29, a couple arrived at their home northwest of Taber to discover an unfamiliar vehicle parked in the driveway. The 46-year-old homeowner parked behind the vehicle, trapping it, while he fetched a hatchet, RCMP said. The man searched the house and found no one inside but soon encountered a man in his 20s trying to escape in the blocked car. Police said the homeowner struck the man twice with the blunt end of a hatchet, smashing his teeth and face. The injured suspect ran off but police tracked him down to his home. Police arrested two other men on a road near the house. All three were charged with breaking and entering. Now, five months later, police have charged the homeowner with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm. "Under the Criminal Code, people can use degrees of force when protecting property or a person, but there are limitations, especially if the courts determine it to be excessive force," said Sgt. Patrick Webb. Joseph Bradley Singleton, 46, is charged with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:10:36 -0400 From: TONY KATZ Subject: online political party We need to join and advocate for concealed carry and a constutional right to own firearms Tony http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/based+party+vows+back+political+cause/3720202/story.html#ixzz13Zllh3Oj Web-based party vows to back any political cause Online Party of Canada to swing whichever way membership directs By Derek Abma, Postmedia News October 25, 2010 Canada has a new political party, the mandate of which is to adopt any position its members support in online polls. The Online Party of Canada was officially launched a few weeks ago. A news release announcing its arrival compares it to the Tea Party movement in the U.S. However, rather than being associated with the political spectrum's right wing, the OPC's leanings will swing whichever way its online membership tells it to go. "Canadians are neither right nor left, in general," party founder Michael Nicula said. "They're right on some issues, they're left on some other issues. Positions taken thus far, as a result of online voting by OPC members, include ending Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan, legalizing prostitution and marijuana, making public transit and post-secondary education free, and eliminating unions from government operations. Nicula said the party has more than 700 members so far. There are no membership fees. His goal is for the party to run candidates in about 100 of the country's 308 federal ridings in the next election, noting the party will also be involved in politics at provincial and municipal levels. At some point, the party will have an online convention to choose a national leader, which Nicula said he will contest. Nicula said there is room for people within the party to show leadership in trying to sway members to their views. But in the end, leaders and representatives must abide by how party members vote. Jonathon Malloy, a political-science professor at Carleton University, isn't optimistic about the OPC's chances. "For them, participatory democracy appears to be voting on an issue, one side or the other," Malloy said. "Public policy is often a bit more complicated than that. The more you get into different issues, the more it can't simply be a binary one or the other. But that appears to be their basic model." © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:10:54 -0400 From: owner-cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca (Majordomo) Subject: Re: CTV - Wendy Cukier selected as one of 25 Transformational Canadians Sender: owner-cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca Precedence: normal Reply-To: cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca Well this cut my appetite... its actually quite nauseating. On 2010-10-19, at 1:45 PM, Dennis & Hazel Young wrote: > Wendy Cukier champions gun control > By Nick Rockel > > The Transformational Canadians program celebrates 25 living citizens > who have made a difference by immeasurably improving the lives of others. > Readers were invited to nominate Canadians who fit this description. > Over several weeks, a panel of six judges will select 25 Transformational > Canadians from among the nominees. > > Nominations remain open until November 26. Submit yours today. > > Wendy Cukier, long-time activist, has been selected as one of 25 > Transformational Canadians. http://www.ctv.ca/generic/generated/static/business/article1762517.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:02:28 -0600 (MDT) From: Jim Szpajcher Subject: Re: Time to pack it in? Folks - I most deeply second Eduardo's recognition of the work of moderators past and present. In addition to those in the spotlight who have been taking our views to the political arena and into the courtroom, the CFD moderator position is one of the toughest jobs that I know. I'm with Eduardo as well in proclaiming John Paul Jones' response. Schlesinger said it best when he noted that the "Future will outwit all our certitudes". We may not have all the answers. But if we are willing to keep putting one foot in front of the other, we may yet keep in the fight for reasonable firearms policy. Jim Szpajcher PD 406 Roosevelt, Utah Our fight is tough. And we have lost several battles. And we have lost several very valuable compatriots. But despair is not the proper response to adversity. And as I said previously, we did make much progress in the last battle in that many in the news media reported actual facts rather than jargon and slogans. So to the question, "Time to pack it in?" I say a resounding "NO!" To Buz's perhaps more pressing question: "Is there anyone out there who would feel motivated enough to step up to the plate and take on a part time position moderating the CFD?" I suggest we begin exploring ways to make the Moderator's job far less onerous. I trust we can, to use a cliche "think outside the box" enough to survive. By making the Moderator's job easier, or rewarding, we may be more successful in the call for volunteers. Sincerely, Eduardo ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:31:34 -0600 From: Edward Hudson Subject: Col. Williams; the New Standard for Licencing Col. Williams; the New Standard for Licencing When misguided Canadian surrendered their Right to have 'Armes for their Defense' and applied for a federal firearms licence they thought that their firearms would be safe from government seizure and confiscation. Well unfortunately for everyone in Canada who has a firearms licence, when Canadian Forces Colonel Russell Williams pled guilty to murdering two women he blew those blind suppositions to pieces. While Mr. Harper and his so-called Conservative government talk long and loud about continuing their campaign of =93scraping the long gun registry=94,1 Mr. Harper has also been steadfast in his endorsement of "enhanced licencing". 2, 3 Now that Col. Williams has shown that even a =93high raking, motivated, exceptional officer=94 is capable of committing heinous crimes, that =93enhanced licence=94 bar will have to be raised as a forensic psychiatrist has noted: it's not unusual for sexual deviants to also be outwardly charming and normal-appearing. 4 To prevent someone like Col. Williams, the former commanding officer of Canadian Forces Base Trenton - from obtaining a firearms licence the Government will need to add a new questions that will pry even deeper into Canadians=92 personal lives. If you have ever looked at an issue of Playboy or Victoria=92s Secret, how do you expect to pass the =93enhanced=94 test that will obviously have to be designed to weed-out such covert, sadistic killers as Col. Williams? Sincerely, Edward B. Hudson DVM, MS Secretary Canadian Unlicensed Firearms Owners Association Association canadienne des propri=E9taires d=92armes sans permis 402 Skeena Court Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7K 4H2 (306) 242-2379 (306) 230-8929 edwardhudson@shaw.ca www.cufoa.ca Notes: 1. Immediately after the vote, a determined-looking Mr. Harper paused on the steps to his third-floor Commons office to vow the Tories would not stop until the registry is dead. Tories aim to turn long-gun defeat into victory = http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/gun-registry-lives-but-harper-vows-to-keep-up-the-fight/article1719471/ 2. It is the recommendation of this Committee to enhance the existing firearms licensing system ... The system will feature a more robust screening process by permitting more direct police involvement in the initial vetting of applicants. - Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee, 24 October 2006 3. Gun control measures in Canada continue to include the requirement or gun owners to undergo a background check, pass a firearms safety training course, and hold a valid firearms licence before being able to acquire and possess firearms and to acquire ammunition. These requirements, in addition to enhanced screening measures announced in Budget 2007, will help to maintain public safety for all Canadians. Tackling Crime, Government of Canada http://www.tacklingcrime.gc.ca/ocom/eff/index-eng.aspx 4. Dr. Julian Gojer, a forensic psychiatrist with Toronto Western Hospital says most people suffering from sexual deviancies can become very adept at hiding their thoughts and living normal lives. Col. Williams' double life not uncommon: experts http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101019/russell-williams-psychology-101019/20101019/?hub=3DOttawaHome ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 05:16:27 -0600 From: Bill Farion Subject: Re: quebec Hi, Well, the problem you have, as always, is Quebec! And those socialist bastards! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:47:48 -0600 From: "Todd Brown" Subject: RE: Farmer charged with assault after attacking burglers with a hatchet Sender: owner-cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca Precedence: normal Reply-To: cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca These charges are complete roadapples!! If we had more people like him, we would have less crime! When criminals realize that theirs is not a safe profession, they will move to a different area, or go straight. Take care, Todd Brown BV Hunting Supplies Home 780-682-3990 cell 780-974-1287 fax 780-682-3994 e-mail bvhunting@xplornet.com - -----Original Message----- From: Dennis & Hazel Young Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 4:09 AM To: Firearms Digest Subject: Farmer charged with assault after attacking burglers with a hatchet CALGARY HERALD - OCTOBER 27, 2010 Farmer charged with assault after hatchet attack http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Farmer+charged+with+assault+after+hatchet+ attack/3731735/story.html A Taber farmer who smashed a suspected burglar in the face with a hatchet is facing assault charges. On May 29, a couple arrived at their home northwest of Taber to discover an unfamiliar vehicle parked in the driveway. The 46-year-old homeowner parked behind the vehicle, trapping it, while he fetched a hatchet, RCMP said. The man searched the house and found no one inside but soon encountered a man in his 20s trying to escape in the blocked car. Police said the homeowner struck the man twice with the blunt end of a hatchet, smashing his teeth and face. The injured suspect ran off but police tracked him down to his home. Police arrested two other men on a road near the house. All three were charged with breaking and entering. Now, five months later, police have charged the homeowner with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm. "Under the Criminal Code, people can use degrees of force when protecting property or a person, but there are limitations, especially if the courts determine it to be excessive force," said Sgt. Patrick Webb. Joseph Bradley Singleton, 46, is charged with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 23:51:33 -0600 From: Larry James Fillo Subject: "Court hears how gang rivalry killed a 10 year old boy" [Toronto black Gangstas imitating the black ghettos of Chicago or Detroit or Boston, right down to the gunfire killing an innocent 10 year old bystander. Likewise those are cities with lots of gun control.] http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2010/10/27/15854276.html Innocent boy's bloody clothing show at trial By MICHELE MANDEL, QMI Agency Birthday BBQ caught in gang crossfire TORONTO - Spider-Man underpants. That's what 11-year-old Ephraim Brown was wearing when he was gunned down, yet another innocent bystander caught in a wild Toronto shoot out. Small Spider-Man boxers, the happy cartoon design a reflection of a blameless boy who should not have died that day. His underwear was among many disturbing autopsy photos taken of Ephraim's clothing introduced at the trial of Akiel Eubank and Gregory Sappleton, the two alleged rival gang members who have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. Both men, in their early 20s, never exchange glances as they sit at separate defence tables. Eubank, his gang affiliation no longer shaved into his hair, constantly scans the room for friends and relatives. Sappleton, his alleged "Redz" and "A Thug's Life" tattoos not visible to the court, keeps his eyes straight ahead. While Ephraim's mother Lorna sits in a row reserved for the grief-stricken victims who attend these proceedings, stoically listening as an itemized list of her dead son's bloody clothes is detailed for the jury. It is the first time that her boy has really entered the courtroom. Until this point, the six men and six women of the jury have seen endless photos of the murder scene at a public housing complex at 1880 Sheppard Ave. W. near Jane St. They've seen the townhouse backyard where Ephraim had come July 21, 2007 to celebrate a six-year-old's birthday and had been allowed to stay up late to celebrate his 18-year-old cousin's as well. They've seen the tunnel next door that runs through the complex where two shooters opened fire at each other, a turf war the Crown alleges was being waged between Sappleton of the Baghdad Crew and Eubank of the Five Point Generalz. Oblivious to the boy who was trapped in between. Jurors have been shown the copper bullet that tore through Ephraim's neck and travelled down and out his back, his DNA matching the blood swabbed from the projectile found on the walkway south of the tunnel. They've seen photos of the green wooden fences lining that walkway riddled with bullets, like target practice at a shooting range, and have been told that as many as 24 shots were heard and at least three shooters involved in the brazen gun battle as partygoers ran for cover. Hundreds of police photographs were entered as exhibits. And then finally Ephraim re-entered this tragic tale. Sgt. Larry Hicks told Crown attorney Donna Armstrong that he was "somewhat surprised" when he'd gone to the murder scene in the early morning hours of July 22 and found so little blood. But that changed when he saw Ephraim's blood-covered body the next day. The forensic officer attended the child's autopsy and when his white body bag was opened at the morgue, he saw it was filled with blood. The ambulance sheets were soaked through, he testified, as were the boy's clothes. Now he understood why there was so little blood at the scene. "His clothing soaked it all up," Hicks told the jury. He was there to take the clothes back to his office to be photographed as evidence. He put some of Ephraim's things in paper bags, he said. But some had to be placed in yellow plastic because they were still so wet. Each item was projected on a screen that faced the jury, the accused and the judge, but not the body of the court. Ephraim's mother could not even see the clothes her son died in. But she didn't need to. No doubt they are seared in her memory. A green golf shirt that had been cut by paramedics in a mad bid to save him, with red staining the collar and middle of his chest. A bloodied white, long-sleeved sweatshirt with a basketball player on the front, with a torn area at the collar where it seems a bullet had struck. A sleeveless undershirt, its back almost completely scarlet, and a single bullet hole at the base of the right shoulder. And then jpeg 13, a stark reminder of the enormity of the tragedy before us. A heartbreaking pair of superhero underwear belonging to a gun victim who was just a child. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, October 28, 2010 9:08 am From: "Dennis & Hazel Young" Subject: LETTER: Gun owners should want to register firearms THE OWEN SOUND SUN TIMES - OCTOBER 28, 2010 LETTER: Gun owners should want to register firearms http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2820616 Editor: Nancy O'Donnell, (Sept. 1), Phil McNichol, (Sept. 4), and Kim Love, (Sept. 8), have written, much more eloquently than I, of the divisive politics and flawed science used to forward the argument to abolish the long gun registry. I only need add my two cents worth to illustrate for our next MP the voice of their constituents who feel all guns should be registered. I have yet to hear one credible reason why a responsible, law abiding gun owner would not want to register all his firearms. Amid the hyperbole and hype, we are being schooled by red herrings. The most effective is the argument this is the urbanites dictating to the rural areas. This is a naked attempt to mobilize the minority to make a disproportionate noise under the threat that "they", (the majority, those city dwellers), are going to tell us how to live our lives if we don't fight hard to show them what's what. The discussion is not city against country; it is non owners against owners. The fact is a majority of Canadians, who probably don't own guns, can't find a reason why a farmer wouldn't register his rifle. The registry protects the owner. If his rifle is stolen, it is more easily recovered if it were registered. If his stolen gun is used in a crime, it is more easily linked to the theft of his rifles if it had been registered, and the recovery of the rest of the stolen property also more likely. An unregistered rifle is worth more than a registered one because it can't be traced. I have personal experience with this. When my dad went to sell his rifles, the first question he was asked was "has it been registered". "The registry is a billion dollar boondoggle." It is overbudget, not least because of an orchestrated campaign by those law-abiding gun owners to bog down and overburden the registry with a blizzard of false applications and misinformation in an attempt to stymie the effectiveness and create a rationale for ending the registry. This Internet campaign has proven very effective at inflating the operational costs, but since when has cost been a good reason to disregard safety? Registering firearms makes it easier for a judge to remove all guns from an individual who has been found to be unfit to possess them. If we don't know what he has, how can we effectively protect society from him/her? "The registry doesn't stop criminals from having guns" What kind of logic is this? Criminals may not register their cars either. Does this mean I don't have to? No registry can stop criminals from getting guns. It just makes it easier to catch them when we can trace the gun they've stolen back to the source. An unregistered weapon is an investigative dead end. The criminals who tried to blow up the World Trade Center the first time were caught by the registration on the van they packed with explosives. "The registry makes criminals of honest people." No, their decision to ignore the law made them criminals, by their own choice. The majority says I must license, insure, and register my car. Not doing so puts me in violation of the law, so I should blame the law? "The registry is useless to a cop on a call." Any cop who enters premises not expecting to be faced with a gun is unlikely to retire from the job at a ripe old age. But to the cop in the car, it might be handy to know if he/she's facing a gopher rifle or an arsenal. That's what the registry was designed for. The anti-registry forces use badly sampled polling and divisive rhetoric to create one issue voters to decide who will run the country based solely on the politician's stance on the registry. The silent majority is out-shouted by the mobilized minority. There are more important issues that should decide how we vote. You register your motor vehicles, register your rifles. It is safer for us all. Geoff Goetz Owen Sound ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:21:42 -0400 From: Ed Sieb Subject: RE: Farmer charged with assault after attacking burglers with a Today, in Canada, any homeowner who attacks a burglar, or any other miscreant should consider "Shoot-Shovel-Shut-up". Otherwise the victim will be liable to keep and succour the criminals for the rest of their misbegotten lives. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:25:48 -0700 (PDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: TorStar - Are these cops above the law? http://www.thestar.com/news/article/882189--are-these-cops-above-the-law Are these cops above the law? October 28, 2010 David Bruser and Michele Henry A Toronto police officer inexplicably floors his gas pedal, speeds into an illegal right turn and runs down a grandmother, severing her brain stem and killing her instantly. An OPP constable wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a baton and pepper spray shoots and kills an intellectually challenged 59-year-old man holding a small pocket knife. During a traffic stop near Canada's Wonderland, York Region officers rough up a small, 50-year-old accountant, breaking his arm and leaving him roadside. A Peel Region police officer sucker-punches a handcuffed prisoner and breaks his jaw in two places. Two teens chatting on the grass in a public park are run over by a Durham Region squad car, suffering extensive injuries. All of these officers were quickly cleared by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) - the provincial agency responsible for investigating serious injuries and deaths resulting from interactions between police and the public. All still work as police officers. The Toronto Star investigated two decades of SIU cases. It found that police officers across the province are treated far differently than civilians when accused of shooting, beating and running over and killing people, some of them innocent bystanders. Ontario's criminal justice system heavily favours police and gives officers breaks at every turn - from the SIU, which hardly ever charges officers, to prosecutors, juries and judges. Where civilians causing similar damage are typically prosecuted, cops walk. Even in the rare instances when officers are charged and convicted, they almost always avoid jail time. The Star also found police officers' lack of preparation, reckless and ill-advised tactics, and tendency to use excessive force led to civilian injuries and deaths. "(The SIU) doesn't charge anybody. It's all a waste of time," said David Orbst, the short, unintimidating accountant whose arm was broken during a traffic stop by York Region police officers, including an officer Orbst identified as Const. Derek Cadieux. "If a (civilian) had done this to me, I point the finger and they get arrested." The head of the SIU, Ian Scott, defended his agency in an interview with the Star but said, "Police officers get all kinds of breaks in the (criminal justice) system." The Star found in many cases that the reckless actions of some police officers have tarnished the oft-stated mottos - "to serve and protect" or "leaders in community safety" - of police forces across the province. In one case, Toronto Police Supt. Neale Tweedy, who was tasked with disciplining a constable who killed a bystander, said police officers must lead by example. He said "preventing property damage, injury and death is a core business function." The Star found the SIU is hampered by a justice system that heavily favours police, and has not done its job holding officers to this standard. In its 20-year history, the SIU has conducted at least 3,400 investigations and laid criminal charges after only 95 of them, according to a Star analysis. The SIU does not track what happens to those it charges. But the Star has, and found only 16 officers have been convicted of a crime. Only three have seen the inside of a jail - as inmates. "Two words on the (SIU) website are: Independent and rigorous. (But) it's just a farce organization," says Emal Bariali, whose schizophrenic brother Elyas was shot dead by Durham police in 2005. "Seems to me like there are no consequences (for officers). Why would the police take the SIU seriously?" The numbers should not surprise Scott. Four years before he took the helm in 2008, he said he had little faith in the agency's effectiveness given the constraints of the justice system. In a presentation he made to a lawyers' conference in 2004, Scott, who once worked as a prosecutor, noted that police officers accused of using excessive force stood a less than one-in-five chance of facing the same level of justice as civilians accused of similar crimes. "It is an ineffective use of state resources to investigate, charge and prosecute cases in which the high probability is ... acquittal," Scott wrote in 2004. He proposed a second option - give the SIU the power to send some suspect officers to the Ontario Civilian Policing Commission, an independent oversight agency, where they could be fined or fired. He said a commission verdict would act as a "deterrent" to police misconduct. But Scott's call went unanswered. The SIU was created in 1990 after a series of police shootings of black civilians provoked community backlash and fear the incidents would be covered up by police-friendly investigations. In one case in 1988, a Peel Region officer shot and killed teenager Michael Wade Lawson as he drove a stolen car. Supporters of the new agency, including the Toronto police chief of the day Bill McCormack, said the independent SIU would boost public confidence in police oversight. But community groups expressed concern that the unit, staffed by former police officers, would not be independent enough. Today, the SIU employs 54 full- and part-time investigators, 47 of whom are former police officers. "While the SIU is far from perfect ... the alternative is to return to the police investigating the police, an option that has fallen into disfavour due to the conflict-of-interest issues," SIU director Scott said. The taxpayer-funded agency, which today has an annual budget of around $7 million, refused to cooperate with the Star investigation by providing short summaries of hundreds of investigations, internal reports the SIU writes after it concludes investigations, and other documents. The Star, through police, court and civilian witness sources, built files on 700 SIU cases. In some cases, sources provided evidence collected during SIU investigations. The Star found: - - The SIU missed or ignored crucial evidence in at least six cases. - - Officers are too quick to take aggressive action against civilians. - - A cozy relationship between police and prosecutors has allowed officers to avoid punishment. - - Police officers involved in an incident investigated by the SIU break a conduct rule by delaying writing their notes, and share the same lawyer, leaving victims worried officers are collaborating to get their story straight and prevent the SIU from learning the truth. As a result, neither police nor victims believe the SIU can conduct the kind of independent, "rigorous" investigations it was set up for. Some cases the Star reviewed involved innocent bystanders while others involved those with criminal records, histories of violence and a variety of backgrounds police often come into contact with in the course of their duties. In 2006, Hafeez Mohamed was punched in the head, neck and shoulder eight to 10 times during an arrest by Durham Region police officer Prasanth Tella. Responding to a report of an assault outside a house in Elmvale, Ont., OPP Const, Jeff Seguin arrived to talk with the suspect, Doug Minty, an intellectually challenged 59-year-old living with his mother. Minty moved toward Seguin and was shot dead. The SIU did not conduct a thorough investigation and cleared Seguin, though his sketchy story failed to conclusively show that a fatal bullet was his only option. Minty's brother John said the family still does not understand why Doug was killed last summer. "I think the family is entitled" to answers, John Minty said. "And the SIU investigation certainly didn't, and won't, provide us with those answers." Grandmother Mei Han Lee, 67, was not a suspect. She was walking home to help care for her autistic grandson when Toronto police officer Juan Quijada-Mancia sped into an illegal right turn, hit Lee and killed her instantly. Lee's family says the SIU was eager to sweep the case into obscurity. The officer was not responding to an emergency call, and to this day neither the SIU nor Toronto Police have said where Quijada-Mancia was going in such a hurry on that February morning in 2005. "She always obeyed the law. What was the officer doing?" asks Lee's daughter-in-law Rose Chen. Police officers such as Quijada-Mancia can also face internal disciplinary hearings, which are conducted by superiors in their own force and carry softer punishments than those that could result from a criminal charge. Quijada-Mancia was disciplined by the Toronto Police. He lost 40 hours' pay. It was in this decision that Supt. Tweedy stressed the importance of police officers being held to the same standard as civilians. The Star found no accountability for incidents that caused civilian injuris and deaths. The SIU completes reports after investigations and then gives them to the Ministry of the Attorney General. But the victims and the public do not get to see the information. Most of the police officers involved in incidents probed by the Star declined to be interviewed. Durham Insp. Bruce Townley said officers are traumatized by incidents that result in death or injury. "Contrary to what may be perceived, that we're all cowboys, we're human beings," said Townley, whose force features in three cases reviewed by the Star. "These people are out to protect the public and protect themselves." The Star found that the virtual immunity police officers enjoy is not the SIU's fault alone. The agency faces obstacles that Scott knew well before he took over in 2008. An officer investigated by the SIU benefits from a presumption of good character by jurors and judges. In the rare instance when the SIU has laid charges, one of every four officers sees the charges dropped before trial, many others are acquitted, or, as has happened at least 10 times, an officer is found guilty before a judge spares him jail time. Some guilty police officers walk out of court with their record wiped clean. Hamilton Police Const. Jason Williams was charged in 2002 with assault for kicking a handcuffed 57-year-old psychiatric resident of a group home in the head. Five fellow officers testified they saw Williams repeatedly punch and kick the man. Williams was convicted of assault, though the judge dismissed the more serious charge of assault causing bodily harm. Ian Scott was the prosecutor. At sentencing, he asked for jail time, but Williams received none. Scott also prosecuted Niagara constable Michael Moore, found guilty in 2002 of breach of trust after he accepted oral sex from a woman in exchange for not issuing her a traffic ticket. Scott called Moore a "wolf in police uniform" and wanted him jailed for six to nine months. Moore got a year of house arrest. He has since resigned from the force. Police trials, Scott said in an interview, are "very different" because many in the justice system view these as "occupational crimes" - the consequences of a dangerous job - as opposed to crimes committed by criminals. Officers also enjoy stiff protection from the sturdy blue wall of their police force, insulation by scrappy lawyers working for unions with deep pockets, and typically a close working relationship with prosecutors. Following a judge's criticism of this type of relationship, the SIU recently re-investigated and charged a Peel Region police officer with assault against Quang Hoang Tran. Tran had been convicted of playing a role in a series of brutal home invasions, but the conviction was thrown out this year after an appeals court found Peel officers "beat him up" and "attempted to cover up their shocking conduct." Because of the behaviour of the police and prosecutor, a criminal walked free. Though they are afforded special powers - to stop and arrest civilians, and carry a gun - officers enjoy some of the same protections as civilians when investigated. Police officers at the centre of SIU probes do not have to give a statement to the agency - a right zealously protected by police lawyers and unions. One well-known police lawyer, Gary Clewley, recently said in an article he wrote for a police union magazine that he has been tempted to tell so-called "subject officers" to "Shut the f--- up" before writing their notes, and talk to a lawyer. As part of their internal disciplinary proceedings, police forces can compel officers to give statements, but the SIU is not entitled to that crucial evidence. Now that Scott has the job he previously thought so impotent, a defence lawyer who has represented officers investigated by the SIU summed up Scott's untenable position this way: "Ian has the worst job in the province. Everyone hates him - the police, the community. No matter what he does he can't do anything right. Every decision he makes will be criticized for years." The powerful OPP union has sent out a newsletter accusing Scott of anti-cop bias. Though the justice system heavily favours police, one Ontario judge was surprised that police officers complain of persecution when they are hardly ever charged. In 2001, when Justice John Ground threw out a $10 million malicious prosecution lawsuit brought by York Region officer Robert Wiche against the SIU, he said: "There appeared to be on the part of certain police witnesses and certain police associations an almost Pavlovian reaction against a civilian agency (the SIU) investigating the conduct of police officers ... and against the idea that such an agency could conduct an investigation which could be fair to police officers," the judge wrote. "This is particularly surprising when ... in about 97 per cent of the cases, the investigation exonerates the subject officer." Data analysis by the Star's Andrew Bailey. David Bruser can be reached at 416-869-4282 or dbruser@thestar.ca Michele Henry can be reached at 416-869-4386 or mhenry@thestar.ca lettertoed@thestar.ca ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V14 #154 *********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@scorpion.bogend.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca Moderator's email: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca List owner: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca FAQ list: http://www.canfirearms/Skeeter/Faq/cfd-faq1.html Web Site: http://www.canfirearms.ca CFDigest Archives: http://www.canfirearms.ca/archives To unsubscribe from _all_ the lists, put the next four lines in a message and mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca unsubscribe cdn-firearms-digest unsubscribe cdn-firearms-chat unsubscribe cdn-firearms end (To subscribe, use "subscribe" instead of "unsubscribe".)