Not given to monomania, I really hope that at some point in the (perhaps distant) future, I will be able to completely move on from commenting about police misdeeds. It's just that I have a real thing against the abuse of authority, and every time they come to my attention, I feel compelled to offer my observations.
I have written previously about Ontario Court Justice Lesley Baldwin and her brave comments that 'contempt of cop is not a crime'. Unlike the SIU, which has proven both toothless and feckless in fulfilling their mandate of investigating the police, Justice Baldwin has clearly seen through the barrier of the 'blue wall' that police tend to erect whenever one of their own is under fire.
She is once more in the news in a Toronto Star article entitled ‘Courageous’ judge takes on Halton cops. In part, the piece summarizes her previous ruling that prompted her 'contempt of cop' comments as she dismissed charges against Kyle Davidson of assaulting a peace officer, resisting arrest and being intoxicated in public in connection with a June 2009 arrest.
According to Davidson in an interview I saw last night on TV, a police car sped by him, narrowly missing him, at which point he mouthed an obscentiy. The police car came to a sudden stop and Davidson was told he was under arrest. Incredulous at the turn of events, he asked "For what?" after which Const. Erich Paroshy broke his arm.
Justice Baldwin's observations were as follows:
"I do find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Officer Paroshy used excessive force and broke Kyle Davidson’s arm in this case,” said Justice Baldwin in her 16-page ruling, making clear that “contempt of cop” is not a justification for an arrest.
Davidson said he has read the ruling “like 75 times” and added that he “feels absolutely vindicated. I really doubted the system.”
Baldwin went further in her ruling, calling police conduct in the case “harsh and callous.” She added: “I sensed no empathy on the part of either officer for the injuries Kyle Davidson sustained in this matter.”
In a related Star story, Justice Baldwin recommended to Crown prosecutors that they “carefully screen cases where an accused is brought before the Court on charges that arise from circumstances of suspected ‘contempt of cop’ before they proceed to prosecute the matter.” In the Dyrda case, she recommended screening “where no underlying charges accompany ‘assault resist arrest’ and ‘obstruct police’ charges.”
The above reference to the Dryda case, interestingly enough, also involved Erich Paroshy, the officer who broke Davidson's arm. The details of that case are as follows:
Baldwin acquitted brothers Bogumil and Stanislaw Dyrda of all charges, including assaulting a peace officer, stemming from an incident in January 2009.
According to court documents, Stanislaw was returning from dropping his daughter off at university in Ottawa when his car swerved off the road into a pile of rocks, deploying the airbag.
Constables Paroshy and Blair Egerter responded to a dispatch around 10 p.m. and alleged that when they tried to get information from Stanislaw he responded by saying “no.”
As they escorted him back to the cruiser, the officers testified they suspected Stanislaw was intoxicated and that he pushed himself away from Paroshy.
He was then placed under arrest, and as an altercation ensued, Paroshy alleged that Bogumil, having arrived on the scene after receiving a call from his brother, interfered by pulling off his bulletproof vest.
Stanislaw was punched by the officers, taken to the ground by Egerter and pepper-sprayed by Paroshy.
The brothers said that Stanislaw was not intoxicated, but exhausted from driving 17 hours and disoriented from the car crash; also, that Bogumil was trying to diffuse the situation by offering to translate for his brother, who speaks little English. He denied trying to take off Paroshy’s vest.
“Their duty as officers was to determine if this man needed some help. Help was not what Stanislaw Dyrda got that evening. He got beaten,” said Justice Baldwin in a 32-page ruling. “At the end of this long trial, it was clear that this case involved the excessive use of police force.”
Predictably, the Halton Police Association is offended and defensive about the judge's comments.
Police association president Duncan Foot slammed the judge for her decision in a letter to a local paper.
Trying to conceal rather than root out the problems is not a strategy that will restore public confidence, nor will it do anything to curb what seems to be the rising number of reported incidents of police brutality and excessive use of force.
Added to that, to paraphrase a subject popular with the Harper government, we can only wonder about the number of unreported crimes committed by police in their overzealous pursuit of their public safety duties.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Let's Hope We Never Sink To This Level
While the Harper government is no stranger to fear-mongering, its tactics look both brilliant and subtle compared to the following two American political ads:
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
Another Police Embarrassment
I really take no pleasure in reading about police who are charged with crimes. Sadly, that kind of misbehavior, which seems to be alarmingly on the increase, reflects badly on all officers, which is patently unfair. Nonetheless, it is crucial that we hold to a very high standard these guardians of our security, as any abuse of their considerable authority has quite serious implications for society. Transparency, not secrecy, is the key. If our police services want to restore and maintain our trust, they surely will have to behave better than the Peel Police did recently.
In a story that has come to light only through the doggedness of the Toronto Star, we learn that Peel tried to conceal from the public some serious allegations facing one of its members, Darrell Beck, 32, of Lisle, Ont., who was arrested at 8:48 p.m. Friday on suspicion of impaired driving and possession for the purpose of trafficking. They did everything in their power to keep the fact that he is an officer from the public. Check out the full story to learn the disturbing details.
In a story that has come to light only through the doggedness of the Toronto Star, we learn that Peel tried to conceal from the public some serious allegations facing one of its members, Darrell Beck, 32, of Lisle, Ont., who was arrested at 8:48 p.m. Friday on suspicion of impaired driving and possession for the purpose of trafficking. They did everything in their power to keep the fact that he is an officer from the public. Check out the full story to learn the disturbing details.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
The Voice of Integrity: Munir Sheikh
Those not seduced by the siren call of simplicity promoted by the Harper government will be pleased to learn that Munir Sheikh, the former head of Statistics Canada who resigned his post rather than give his stamp of approval to the Tory elimination of the mandatory long-form census, is in the news, keeping the face and voice of integrity alive.
An article in The Star entitled Ex-chief statistician picks apart cancellation of long census, reveals that a 26-page essay written by Sheikh, his contribution to a volume on “intelligent government” published by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, is very critical of the Harper government, saying that "the census decision has shaken Statistics Canada’s neutrality and independence, and put at risk the government’s own work in many areas."
In the essay, Sheikh warns statisticians working at the federal agency to “guard against political intervention” until better solutions are found.
Sheikh also raises concerns over poor data on aboriginal populations, especially housing on reserves, and about the government making key decisions on pension reform without having reliable information on wealth in Canadian households.
He also issue this stinging observation: “No country can be among the league of civilized societies without intelligent policy development. And, intelligent policy development is not possible without good data”
For those interested, a link to the essay is also found in the Star article.
An article in The Star entitled Ex-chief statistician picks apart cancellation of long census, reveals that a 26-page essay written by Sheikh, his contribution to a volume on “intelligent government” published by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, is very critical of the Harper government, saying that "the census decision has shaken Statistics Canada’s neutrality and independence, and put at risk the government’s own work in many areas."
In the essay, Sheikh warns statisticians working at the federal agency to “guard against political intervention” until better solutions are found.
Sheikh also raises concerns over poor data on aboriginal populations, especially housing on reserves, and about the government making key decisions on pension reform without having reliable information on wealth in Canadian households.
He also issue this stinging observation: “No country can be among the league of civilized societies without intelligent policy development. And, intelligent policy development is not possible without good data”
For those interested, a link to the essay is also found in the Star article.
Unions' Self-Inflicted Problems
Allow me to be unequivocal from the start: I am a strong believer in unions as virtually the only effective means of countering the depredations that employers would inflict upon their workers if given the opportunity. However, I also believe that in some ways, unions are their own worst enemies, an opinion I formed as a member of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation during my teaching career.
Like many if not most institutions, unions have become highly political in both their structure and their treatment of members. My own experience with my former union was that they had little time or respect for those, like me, who expressed opinions that challenged their positions, especially if they were not a member of the executive. I suspect it is this refusal to both respect and to cultivate the 'ordinary' union member that poses a threat to the union movement's future greater than any that might emerge from so-called 'right-to-work' legislation that is becoming increasingly popular in the United States.
I was prompted to reflect on the topic this morning during breakfast as I read The Toronto Star. A story entitled Construction union pays $10 million to buy off employees reveals a curious kind of union-busting tactic within a union framework that has been employed by the Labourers’ International Union of North America in Toronto.
The first four paragraphs of the story read as follows:
The continent’s biggest construction local is spending more than $10 million to muscle out its own staff and their new union.
In a twist to the explosive political infighting that occasionally flares up in the labour movement, the Toronto-based Labourers’ International Union of North America Local 183 is buying out about 80 employees with lucrative financial packages after they joined another union.
Several insiders say the move will effectively snuff out the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2, which represents Local 183 staff, because replacement members won’t have any allegiances and will eventually decertify it.
“It’s disgusting what Local 183 has done to get rid of them and the union,” one insider said Tuesday. “It’s a good example for non-union companies. If you don’t want a union, just buy off the employees.”
The rest of the story describes the political machinations within the local and how the staff joined a rival union to try to circumvent revenge firings that regularly ensue when staff has backed the wrong candidates for union elections. Indeed, there is even a tactic discussed in the story reminiscent of the show-trials popularized by Joseph Stalin during the 1930's.
I hope you will read the entire article to get the full flavor of union politics.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
Like many if not most institutions, unions have become highly political in both their structure and their treatment of members. My own experience with my former union was that they had little time or respect for those, like me, who expressed opinions that challenged their positions, especially if they were not a member of the executive. I suspect it is this refusal to both respect and to cultivate the 'ordinary' union member that poses a threat to the union movement's future greater than any that might emerge from so-called 'right-to-work' legislation that is becoming increasingly popular in the United States.
I was prompted to reflect on the topic this morning during breakfast as I read The Toronto Star. A story entitled Construction union pays $10 million to buy off employees reveals a curious kind of union-busting tactic within a union framework that has been employed by the Labourers’ International Union of North America in Toronto.
The first four paragraphs of the story read as follows:
The continent’s biggest construction local is spending more than $10 million to muscle out its own staff and their new union.
In a twist to the explosive political infighting that occasionally flares up in the labour movement, the Toronto-based Labourers’ International Union of North America Local 183 is buying out about 80 employees with lucrative financial packages after they joined another union.
Several insiders say the move will effectively snuff out the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2, which represents Local 183 staff, because replacement members won’t have any allegiances and will eventually decertify it.
“It’s disgusting what Local 183 has done to get rid of them and the union,” one insider said Tuesday. “It’s a good example for non-union companies. If you don’t want a union, just buy off the employees.”
The rest of the story describes the political machinations within the local and how the staff joined a rival union to try to circumvent revenge firings that regularly ensue when staff has backed the wrong candidates for union elections. Indeed, there is even a tactic discussed in the story reminiscent of the show-trials popularized by Joseph Stalin during the 1930's.
I hope you will read the entire article to get the full flavor of union politics.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The Power of the People
Despite our almost legendary passivity as a people, one small part of Canada is offering an example of what can happen when citizens shed the mantle of political disengagement that our politicians have long cultivated and counted on in order to push through their misguided policies unchecked.
The small part of Canada to which I refer is the City of Toronto whose people, it is becoming increasingly apparent, now realize the ghastly mistake they made in electing a mayor who told them what they wanted to hear during the campaign and uncritically accepted his lies, only to be faced now with the cost of that misplaced trust.
As most people know, Rob Ford won the Toronto mayoralty race by promising low taxes and no service cuts, miracles that would be wrought by elimination of the 'gravy' that his profligate predecessors had swilled with abandon. Hundreds of millions of dollars in savings would thus be available. Of course, it turned out that there was almost no gravy, unless one were to reclassify services regarded as vital to a well-functioning city under that designation.
Earlier in the summer, impassioned citizens made public representations protesting many of the proposed cuts. Yesterday and early this morning, they did the same in a 20-hour executive committee session in which the delegates were allowed only two minutes each to make their case, down from the previous five minute allotment in the first confrontation. Nonetheless, it is clear that their voices have been heard.
In an online Star report entitled Ford backs down from cuts, for now, we are told that by the end of the marathon session, Ford voted .... to reject some proposed cuts and to put off decisions on almost all of the others to the 2012 budget process, which begins in November and ends in mid-January.
While the issue of service cuts is not dead by any means, I suspect that as long as public anger and political engagement continues over the prospect of living in a city robbed of its vitality and habitability by philistines like Ford and his council supporters, the citizens of Toronto will have the influence they should have over forthcoming budget deliberations.
Now if we could only export that engagement to the federal level .....
The small part of Canada to which I refer is the City of Toronto whose people, it is becoming increasingly apparent, now realize the ghastly mistake they made in electing a mayor who told them what they wanted to hear during the campaign and uncritically accepted his lies, only to be faced now with the cost of that misplaced trust.
As most people know, Rob Ford won the Toronto mayoralty race by promising low taxes and no service cuts, miracles that would be wrought by elimination of the 'gravy' that his profligate predecessors had swilled with abandon. Hundreds of millions of dollars in savings would thus be available. Of course, it turned out that there was almost no gravy, unless one were to reclassify services regarded as vital to a well-functioning city under that designation.
Earlier in the summer, impassioned citizens made public representations protesting many of the proposed cuts. Yesterday and early this morning, they did the same in a 20-hour executive committee session in which the delegates were allowed only two minutes each to make their case, down from the previous five minute allotment in the first confrontation. Nonetheless, it is clear that their voices have been heard.
In an online Star report entitled Ford backs down from cuts, for now, we are told that by the end of the marathon session, Ford voted .... to reject some proposed cuts and to put off decisions on almost all of the others to the 2012 budget process, which begins in November and ends in mid-January.
While the issue of service cuts is not dead by any means, I suspect that as long as public anger and political engagement continues over the prospect of living in a city robbed of its vitality and habitability by philistines like Ford and his council supporters, the citizens of Toronto will have the influence they should have over forthcoming budget deliberations.
Now if we could only export that engagement to the federal level .....
What is Mesothelioma? A Question I Am Sure The Harpur Government Well Knows The Answer To
Think of Stephen Harper and his minions when you watch this video. He and his government are directly responsible for cases of this dread disease in developing countries such as India.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
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