[IPSM] Investigate Fantino, lawyer urges

[stef at tao.ca]

Investigate Fantino, lawyer urges

Robert Benzie
TorStar News
July 20 2008

http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/405955

Police transcripts of three calls between Julian Fantino and native
protester Shawn Brant during tense negotiations last summer have led to
calls for the disciplining of the Ontario Provincial Police commissioner.

Brant's lawyer, Peter Rosenthal, is accusing the OPP of installing an
illegal wiretap on his client's cellphone and yesterday called for Premier
Dalton McGuinty to investigate, and possibly dismiss, the commissioner for
that action and for what he said on the tape.

"Premier McGuinty should direct some people to consider what Commissioner
Fantino said (in transcripts of the calls) as part of the inquiry ... and
see whether it's appropriate for Fantino to stay commissioner," Rosenthal
said yesterday at a news conference in his Toronto office. He won support
from NDP MPP Peter Kormos.

The tap on Brant's cellphone was made without obtaining a court order, a
necessary step in all but the most urgent of cases, Rosenthal said. He added
that there was plenty of advance notice about the day of action last year
during which Brant and other Mohawk activists blockaded Highway 401 and a
main rail line near Kingston on June 29, 2007.

Transcripts of the calls were released Friday after a publication ban sought
by the Crown was ultimately denied following a series of court battles. The
transcripts had surfaced at a preliminary hearing into charges against Brant
stemming from the blockade. At the hearing, Fantino said he was unaware of
the wiretap at the time he talked to Brant.

Guidelines recommended last year by Justice Sidney Linden in his judicial
inquiry into the 1995 OPP shooting death of native protester Dudley George
at Ipperwash Provincial Park called for all telephone calls to and from the
police command post during a native occupation or protest to be recorded.

The transcripts reveal heated exchanges between the two men.

"I don't wanna get on your bad side but you're gonna force me to do
everything I can within your community and everywhere else to destroy your
reputation," Fantino told Brant in one call.

At times during the June 29, 2007 calls – at 2:10 a.m., 3:43 a.m., and 6:41
a.m. – Fantino and Brant sound remarkably civil.

"You're tired, we're tired, you're tired, we're tired. Let's, ya know, let's
all go home," the commissioner said at one point.

But Fantino also warns Brant, "Your whole world's gonna come crashing down
on this issue" and reminds the activist that he would lose in the court of
public opinion if he's intransigent.

"Shawn, we're not negotiating any more. We've done it all night," said the
commissioner.

"I'm now telling you for the sake of all that's decent and holy – and the
things you're trying to achieve and to ensure that the reputation and the
credibility of First Nations people which I think is being very severely
damaged – I'm now telling you pull the plug or you will suffer grave
consequences."

Unknown to Brant at the time, the OPP had a tactical unit ready to forcibly
end the blockade, but the 10-hour standoff ended peacefully. At yesterday's
news conference, Rosenthal said Fantino, in those conversations, threatened
Brant "with premature death at the hands of (an OPP) sniper."

"It seems to me, in the context, that's what would occur to most people," he
said about his interpretation of the conversation in which Fantino spoke of
"grave consequences" for Brant.

In an interview, the NDP's Kormos (Welland) expressed alarm at Fantino's
"pugnacious and bellicose" rhetoric and called for the commissioner's
resignation for his "Rambo-style policing."

"He's crossed the line yet again. He just can't control himself," Kormos
said.

McGuinty, who personally selected Fantino to be OPP commissioner, was
unequivocal in his support of the former Toronto police chief.

"I'm not prepared to get involved in second-guessing what Commissioner
Fantino did," the premier said earlier in Quebec City.

"I've always had a lot of confidence in Commissioner Fantino. That
confidence remains. He has performed heroically, arguably under some of the
most difficult circumstances when it comes to our province's relationship
with our aboriginal communities."
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Brant's lawyer calls for temporary suspension of OPP commissioner

 Canadian Press


July 19 2008

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5htcuVq_S-BCBpCdcncqYZzDAjq1Q

TORONTO — The lawyer for an aboriginal protester wants the Ontario
government to temporarily suspend the commissioner of the provincial police
force and urgently investigate comments he made to the protester during last
year's aboriginal day of action.

Peter Rosenthal, lawyer for Shawn Brant, told a news conference in Toronto
on Saturday that threatening comments made by Ontario Provincial Police
Commissioner Julian Fantino in wiretapped conversations with his client on
June 29, 2007, and testimony under oath during a preliminary inquiry,
suggest his conduct needs to be investigated.

"They should suspend Commissioner Fantino as a commissioner ... and have a
quick investigation," said Rosenthal.

He also said he wants Premier Dalton McGuinty to read the transcripts and
"then consider whether or not it's appropriate for Mr. Fantino to remain
commissioner of the OPP."

The wiretap documents suggest the OPP was minutes away from moving in on
First Nations blockades on Highway 401 during the aboriginal day of action.

The phone conversations - recorded without a court order - indicate Fantino
told Brant he would do "everything I can within your community and
everywhere else to destroy your reputation."

Rosenthal said there is a provision in the Criminal Code for such wiretaps,
but they are for "extreme" circumstances.

Brant had made it clear the blockades were going to be erected weeks in
advance, he said.

Fantino told the court he didn't know who ordered the wiretaps, but he was
aware of them.

The commissioner also told Brant over the phone that "your world's going to
come crashing down" and that he would suffer "grave consequences" if the
blockade didn't end.

Asked what Fantino meant by "grave consequences," Rosenthal answered
bluntly.

"Death. Dudley George suffered grave consequences," he said in reference to
the shooting death of the aboriginal protester by an OPP sniper in Ipperwash
Provincial Park in 1995.

"If somebody does read that transcripts, who's aware of Ipperwash, they
would recognize that there's danger in allowing Fantino to be head of OPP
and the danger we talk about is life and death." Rosenthal said.

The heated exchanges between Brant and Fantino seem to contradict the
force's own guidelines for dealing with aboriginal groups, which were
recommended following George's shooting.

The framework for police preparedness for aboriginal critical incidents
recommends that local First Nations police play a lead role in incidents.

In this instance, Fantino travelled to Napanee, Ont., on the day of the
protest and took over negotiations from the aboriginal officers Brant had
been dealing with.

Brant, who faces nine charges, was arrested following the incidents, when he
and other First Nations protesters blocked Canada's busiest highway as well
as the CN Rail corridor between Toronto and Montreal near Deseronto, Ont.

In court transcripts, Rosenthal asked Fantino if the recommendations of the
Ipperwash Inquiry dictate that in situations like the aboriginal day of
action if "for the public good, as well as for the respect of the protesters
involved, it's important to understand where they're coming from and deal
with their cultural values and so on?"

Fantino responded saying "there's nothing in the spirit, the intent or the
written word in this document that justifies criminal conduct or that
exonerates people from accountability from criminal conduct."

Rosenthal said that although Fantino's comments are true, the OPP made a
commitment to the recommendations of the Ipperwash Inquiry to recognize
special concerns when dealing with aboriginal protesters.

"Mr. Fantino, in my submission, does not recognize that," Rosenthal told
reporters.

In Quebec City on Friday, McGuinty said that Fantino has the Ontario
government's full support.

A spokesman for the premier said on Saturday that nothing changed in light
of the release of the documents or Rosenthal's comments.

A spokeswoman for the OPP said it would be inappropriate to comment on the
case because it remains before the courts.

Rosenthal also revealed Saturday that an undercover OPP officer had gone to
the scene of the blockade on the aboriginal day of action acting as a member
of the media to get a closer look at the blockade and the protesters.

He asked the officer in court if there were any concerns his actions might
hinder the freedom of the press.

The officer responded there were not.

Rosenthal and lawyers from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
successfully lifted the publication ban on the court documents and
transcripts Friday, only to have a judge reinstate it later in the
afternoon. The same judge then reversed the decision a few hours later,
allowing for the publication of the evidence.
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