The province’s Special Investigations Unit has suspended one investigator and disciplined two others for their conduct during the investigation of the February police shooting of hospital patient Michael Eligon.The suspension follows a documentary shot by a French television crew, which shows an SIU forensic investigator in the lab wearing what is believed to be a police ring, a violation of SIU policy because it creates the appearance of a pro-police bias.
Two other investigators were ordered to get counselling from a supervisor after the TV footage appeared to show they were arriving at conclusions about what happened before the interviews were complete.
“I found it quite stunning,” said Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin, who saw the French TV video in his office two weeks ago and brought it to the SIU’s attention.
SIU Director Ian Scott said he suspended the forensic investigator within 24 hours of learning of the video.
“This was a very serious transgression,” he said Thursday. “I was very unimpressed. This policy was put in place because the SIU is supposed to be independent. I am personally concerned because it conveys a message that we are part of the (police) club.”
On March 19, the SIU decided there were no grounds to lay criminal charges against the police officer who shot Eligon, a 29-year-old black man who was wielding two pairs of scissors stolen from a convenience store earlier that day.
Witnesses had said Eligon, who had shortly before left a psychiatric ward, looked confused rather than threatening. He was surrounded by a dozen police officers on Milverton Blvd. near Toronto East General Hospital.
The case has galvanized mental health care advocates, who have called into question the lethal use of force against Eligon, who was wearing only a hospital gown, tuque and socks.
The policy against wearing police insignia of any kind was brought in after Marin wrote an ombudsman’s report in 2008 called “Oversight Unseen,” slamming the practice.
“I think it adds to suspicion that the investigation was not as impartial as it should have been,” Marin said. “Justice must be seen to be done. Was justice done here? I don’t know.”
Wearing police insignia conveys the wrong message, Marin said. “When you have people whose family member has been shot by police and the investigators show up on scene with police badges and rings, it creates suspicion that you are not going to be treated impartially and fairly.”
At one point in the video, two SIU investigators suggest to witnesses to the Eligon shooting that they don’t realize how dangerous the situation was, and one of them is seen making a stabbing motion with his arm.
Marin thought this conveyed a sense that the investigators arrived with “a whole bunch of pre-conceived notions of self-defence” before they began investigating the Eligon case.
“My concern is that investigations have to be unassailable, which means you cannot start an investigation with tunnel vision and a pro-police bias.”
The ombudsman said he thought the SIU had become more independent since his 2008 report, but now he’s not so sure. The ombudsman is an independent officer of the legislature who investigates complaints from the public about government services.
“There’s no greater fan of the SIU than this office,” Marin said. “We’ve been fighting to strengthen their mandate, to get them greater independence, more resources, give them more teeth when dealing with the police. When I saw this, it takes me aback when I see we’re not out of the woods. Are we suffering a relapse here?”
Asked if the police ring is an isolated case, SIU director Scott said he’s going to examine the issue more thoroughly. He would not name the investigator.
The video shows the investigator in a lab and focuses on his hands, but Marin says the ring appears to be pixilated to cover it up. “That gives me great concern.”
Scott said the French filmmakers have not responded to his attempts to learn the circumstances. He said that in his opinion the behaviour of the investigators who expressed their opinions to the French film crew “is not the most egregious thing in the world.”
“They shouldn’t have done that,” Scott said. “They should hold back their opinions and just do their investigations. The ring thing is way more serious.”
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Curtis Rush
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