Unidentified police officers at the G20 summit last summer (Image: James Schwartz)
The Toronto Star continued to do the investigative work the Toronto police would prefer it didn’t, managing once more to splash its front page with a story about a cop accused of abuse at the G20 summit. And, once more, with the spotlight shining brightly on n allegedly misbehaving officer, charges were promptly laid. It’s pretty much a replay of the Babak Andalib-Goortani case, only this time the Star had someone other than Rosie Dimanno do the honours.
From the Star’s follow-up report:
On Friday, the Special Investigations Unit charged Toronto police Const. Glenn Weddell with assault causing bodily harm in connection with [Dorian] Barton’s arrest during the G20 summit last June. The charge came on the same day the Toronto Star publicly revealed Weddell was the previous unnamed officer photographed during Barton’s violent arrest….
The SIU launched an investigation on June 27, 2010, but wound up shutting down and reopening the case twice, each time citing lack of evidence.
Of course, Const. Weddell is innocent until proven guilty. But the old saw in the news business is that two is a coincidence but three is a trend. The Toronto police force is now one embarrassing Star headline away from even the fashion section talking about how bad blue and taciturn is looking this season. Also, in the “not” column of the hot/not lists: Dalton McGuinty’s repeated refusals to hold a public inquiry on this. We assume Liberal MPPs in Toronto will enjoy explaining to voters this fall why repeated behavior of this kind doesn’t need a serious investigation. Hey, it’s not like the Liberal brand is in trouble in Toronto, right?
• Toronto police officer charged in G20 assault [Toronto Star]
• Toronto police officer accused of assaulting pastry-maker at G20 summit [Globe and Mail]
• SIU charges officer in Dorian Barton G20 case [CBC]
• Officer charged with assault causing bodily harm from G20 summit [National Post]
I’m not a huge fan of McGuinty, but I don’t see why he has to wear this fiasco. It was Harper who blew a billion for a weekend photo-op and threw money at his supporters with no accountability. This scandal was far more wasteful than Adscam yet no one is holding Harper responsible for the whole mess.
June 13, 2011 at 6:13 pm | by donEver heard of the 3 metre “law” moron?
June 13, 2011 at 6:38 pm | by BruceI agree that Harper is ultimately to blame but voters have had a change of heart since Adscam. The electorate, or 39.2% of it, has decided that they approve of official corruption and contempt of Parliament (unless it’s by a 21 year old page.)
Still the Federal Liberals have no one to blame but themselves. I don’t know if there has ever been a more vulnerable PM than Harper was going into this election and they Liberals actually lost ground (a bunch of it.) And if Ignatieff had had the sense to take the coalition that was offered to him, or if the Liberals had enacted some form of proprotional representation while they were in office Harper would have been out of power years ago.
Still, it did happen in McGuinty’s province and his government was involved. If Harper refused to call an inquiry, McGuinty should have done it right away. If he had nothing to hide there would be nothing for an inquiry to find right? And if the Prime Minister’s Office obstructed the investigation they could have told us that too.
I fully expect the provincial Liberals to take a pounding in Toronto this fall.
June 13, 2011 at 10:20 pm | by Justin Beach