Crown bungling of the Toronto police corruption case that led to charges being thrown out against six drug officers may spark sweeping judicial changes, says Premier Dalton McGuinty.
With the recently re-elected Liberal government plunged into the first major crisis of its second term, McGuinty yesterday echoed concerns expressed on radio call-in shows, editorial pages, and by his political foes.
"This could very well serve as a catalyst for us to look at the broader system," the premier said yesterday, still reeling from the derailing of the biggest police corruption scandal in Canadian history.
"Let me just say there's as much interest inside government about what went on here as there is outside government," he told reporters at a weekend post-election party conference where Liberals had hoped to celebrate the Oct. 10 victory.
But Justice Ian Nordheimer's 54-page ruling Thursday that stayed the charges against the drug squad officers due to the Crown's ineptitude has cast a pall over the Liberals' festivities.
Nordheimer blasted government lawyers for the "glacial progress of this prosecution."
His decision effectively ended the decade-long probe of Staff Sgt. John Schertzer and Constables Richard Benoit, Steve Correia, Ned Maodus, Joseph Miched and Raymond Pollard, enabling them to walk free. Source...
