When an Ontario Superior Court judge acquitted two men of firearms offences two years ago after finding police had violated their Charter rights, she promised to email her full reasons that afternoon.
On Wednesday, the Crown will ask the province’s highest court to order a new trial because, as it turned out, those written reasons never came.
“The trial judge not only fell short in her obligation to explain to the public why these gun-toting individuals were acquitted and put back into circulation on our streets, she abdicated her responsibility entirely,” the Crown argues in its factum filed with the Ontario Court of Appeal.
But there’s a wrinkle.
Last month, Ontario Superior Court Justice Susanne Goodman released a thorough, 42-page strongly worded decision detailing why she had concluded — two years earlier — that Toronto police officers violated the Charter by making an “arbitrary and unreasonable” decision to pull over Kamar Cunningham and Troy Matthews on March 6, 2008.
She also found officers “outright lied” in court and fabricated evidence. Goodman, for instance, wrote she did not accept officers’ testimony that they pulled over the men, both black, because they weren’t wearing seat belts.
“I was satisfied that the police flagrantly and intentionally violated the defendants’ rights under both sections 8 and 9 of the Charter. They then egregiously supported their actions by providing a false account of the events leading up to it.”
Full Article
Source: Toronto Star
On Wednesday, the Crown will ask the province’s highest court to order a new trial because, as it turned out, those written reasons never came.
“The trial judge not only fell short in her obligation to explain to the public why these gun-toting individuals were acquitted and put back into circulation on our streets, she abdicated her responsibility entirely,” the Crown argues in its factum filed with the Ontario Court of Appeal.
But there’s a wrinkle.
Last month, Ontario Superior Court Justice Susanne Goodman released a thorough, 42-page strongly worded decision detailing why she had concluded — two years earlier — that Toronto police officers violated the Charter by making an “arbitrary and unreasonable” decision to pull over Kamar Cunningham and Troy Matthews on March 6, 2008.
She also found officers “outright lied” in court and fabricated evidence. Goodman, for instance, wrote she did not accept officers’ testimony that they pulled over the men, both black, because they weren’t wearing seat belts.
“I was satisfied that the police flagrantly and intentionally violated the defendants’ rights under both sections 8 and 9 of the Charter. They then egregiously supported their actions by providing a false account of the events leading up to it.”
Full Article
Source: Toronto Star
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