Ontario Policing: Gang Rapes, Murders and Child Porn

Toronto Metro Police dressed in riot gear

The phenomenon of police violence and corruption appears to be widespread in Canada, just like the United States.

Last week, all of Toronto's attention turned to the conviction of Toronto police officer James Forcillo, who was found guilty of attempted murder in relation to the shooting death of Sammy Yatim. Yatim was an 18 year old young man who only possessed a small pocket knife, when he was fatally shot three times in the heart. The officer then shot him 6 more times and was joined by another officer who then tazered him.

The temptation is to think: one bad apple. It’s not. Only three days after the verdict, four Toronto police officers were arrested with seventeen charges related to planting evidence on a suspect and obstructing justice (lying) – all suspended with pay. What seemed to get even less attention were the three Toronto police officers who were charged in a gang sexual assault on female member of the Toronto police force and, like their colleagues, were all suspended with pay.

This police racism, misconduct and violence also isn’t something new. There is a historical precedent for this type of behavior - one that took aim the country’s Indigenous population. In 1989, for instance, the Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall Jr., Prosecution found that the criminal justice system failed Marshall “at virtually every turn” due “to the fact that Donald Marshall, Jr., is a Native." Donald Marshall Jr., was a Mi'kmaw man who spent over a decade in prison after being was wrongfully convicted of murder. Then in 1999, the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba concluded that: “The justice system has failed Manitoba’s Aboriginal people on a massive scale.  (more...)

Ontario Policing: Gang Rapes, Murders and Child Porn