NEWS > 20 November 2006

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Calgary Sun - Canada
20 November 2006

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Straitjacket for Toronto cop c

Six months have passed since Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair promised a speedy "procedural review" into Toronto Police "whistle-blower" Sgt. Jim Cassells' sensational allegations that police wrongdoing has been swept under the carpet by police brass.

Toronto Police Services Board chairman Alok Mukherjee said the "results" would be made public.

But when Blair takes the review to the board at its next meeting, Nov. 28, it remains to be seen whether Cassells' troubling claims have been given a thorough and public airing.

Blair and Mukherjee ordered the review in May, after Cassells alleged that "numerous" incidents which emerged during an RCMP-led special task force probe of an allegedly rogue drug squad unit had been minimized, ignored, or had gone unprobed amid brass indifference and interference.

The Sun has learned that the review had such a limited scope that it might produce more questions than answers.

Sources say that not one of Cassells' colleagues on the 25-member corruption task force has been interviewed.

York Regional Police homicide Insp. Mark Tatz, who was recruited to lead the internal affairs probe of what the Toronto force's top officers did or did not do, was given a "very limited" mandate, sources say.

Tatz was told he could only examine the "process" by which decisions were made during the task force investigation and that he could not re-investigate any cases the task force had touched.

Tatz was also told to stay away from any of the 10 Toronto drug cops who were charged as a result of the special task force probe.

Tatz gave the finished review to Blair in late August. Blair then passed it on to retired Ontario Superior Court Justice George Ferguson -- the same ex-justice recruited three years ago by former chief Julian Fantino to review drug squad procedures.

Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash said Blair intends to take the review to the board at its Nov. 28 meeting.

"It is going to the next board meeting. The chief will answer questions after the meeting ... I do not think it is appropriate to discuss the report before it goes before the board," Pugash said.

Cassells' lawyer, Leo Kinahan, who stressed he has not seen the finished review, expressed disappointment at what he has heard of its lack of scope.

"I am disappointed ... I thought the whole idea was to give full and frank disclosure to the taxpayers," Kinahan said.

Kinahan said he thought Blair would want to get to the bottom of Cassells' allegations, but it appears the limited review is "not going to answer any questions" raised by Cassells.

The review's limited scope and its subsequent handing-off to Ferguson suggests the public will get only the "bits and pieces that the Toronto Police Service wants us to hear," Kinahan said.

Cassells, who faces three internal charges for speaking out to the media, has refused to detail his allegations publicly.

The 29-year police veteran was a key investigator in the corruption task force's probe into allegations that a Central Field Command drug squad team led by Det. Sgt. John Schertzer and five former members of his drug command had stolen drugs and cash during drug arrests.

The allegations go back to 1995 and have been under some form of investigation since 1999.

Schertzer and former subordinates Steve Correia, Ray Pollard, Ned Maodus and the now-retired Joe Miched were committed to trial in June on conspiracy allegations. Another former drug cop, Rick Benoit, was sent to trial on allegations that he took part in an assault.

Four other cops are named as unindicted co-conspirators.

All 10 of those officers and another three cops face internal Police Services Act charges.

All officers deny any wrongdoing.

None of the criminal or internal allegations have been tested in court.

Preliminary hearing judge James Blacklock warned that prosecutors have "serious credibility issues" with drug dealer witnesses.

In the wake of the task force probe, more than 200 drug trafficking cases were either stayed or withdrawn.

Initially, both Blair and Mukherjee dismissed Cassells' allegations and said there are no coverups.

Both Blair and Mukherjee also mistakenly dismissed as "old news" a revelation in the Sun that senior federal prosecutor John North -- the prosecutor in the drug possession case of ex-drug squad cop Rob Kelly -- questioned Toronto Police integrity and its ability to police its own.

Prominent defence lawyers who have demanded a public inquiry hailed Cassells as a "hero" when he went public in the Toronto Sun.

Toronto lawyer Peter Biro, who had clients who sued Toronto Police over alleged drug squad mistreatment, said the review's narrow scope was clearly "by design."

It would be "naive and outright silly" to suggest that the failure by police brass to conduct a broader review was not a purposeful act, Biro said.

"It had to be ... a conscious decision ... omission. It can't be inadvertence, or a matter of mere negligence or oversight," he said.

The charged cops have alleged in their own civil law suit that they did nothing wrong and were singled out for malicious prosecution.

Biro said despite some gains from Ferguson's 2004 recommendations on the initial drug squad issue and Justice Patrick LeSage's subsequent review of the police complaints processes, it is "very, very, very clear ... that they didn't nip the problem in the bud."

Biro acknowledged that the Toronto Police Service is not overall a "sick puppy."

But he added that it cannot be judged solely on the "good and heroic and noble work it does."

He said the public should demand that a police service which is embroiled in allegations of wrongdoing and coverups should "critically look at itself, account for itself, acknowledge its mistakes and problems and repair them ... all in the light of day, and not behind closed doors."

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Article sourced from

Calgary Sun - Canada20 November 2006

Straitjacket for Toronto cop c

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Calgary Sun - Canada
20 November 2006