Injustices likely to surface.

Leading experts plan to meet in spring to review most contentious convictions in shaken baby cases

Oct 02, 2009 04:30 AM
Theresa Boyle
Health Reporter


One year after a groundbreaking report exposed flaws in Ontario's forensic pathology system, investigations into dozens of cases continue, with a lawyer for victims of the notorious Dr. Charles Smith expecting more miscarriages of justice to be exposed.

"I've always guessed there will be several cases coming through the shaken-baby committee as likely miscarriages of justice," James Lockyer said Thursday.

He was referring to a committee struck by the province last December to investigate 142 child deaths dating back to 1986 to determine if wrongful convictions resulted from what is now viewed as questionable science.

A review into the shaken-baby deaths was one of the recommendations contained in a report by Justice Stephen Goudge, who headed a public inquiry into Ontario's troubled forensic pathology system. The inquiry was prompted by mistakes made by pathologist Dr. Charles Smith in 20 child-death investigations, 12 of which resulted in convictions.

Attorney General Chris Bentley said in an interview Thursday that cases that don't involve issues of criminality or where the convicted person is deceased are being dropped from the probe.

The most contentious cases will then be reviewed by an international panel of leading medical experts, who are scheduled to meet in Toronto next spring.

"There's no suggestion that anyone did anything wrong. It's just that the knowledge of this shaken-baby syndrome has evolved over the years," Bentley said.

New research shows that some babies once thought to have died from being violently shaken in fact suffered injuries as a result of falls.

Another committee struck by Bentley on the advice of Goudge is looking at 22 of Smith's older cases that were not part of the public inquiry. These are child-death investigations Smith worked on between 1981 and 1991 and they are now being reviewed with a view to determining whether there were any miscarriages of justice.

Bentley said that in cases where injustice is being claimed, the Crown will respond expeditiously to any legal steps taken by the defence.

A third committee is advising Bentley on the viability of a potential compensation framework for Smith's victims. It's headed by Justice Coulter Osborne, with whom Bentley met on Wednesday.

"I know it's a challenging issue. I'm hopeful," Bentley said.

Already, two people convicted of homicide-related crimes on the basis of shaken-baby syndrome have come to the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted for assistance, noted Lockyer, a director with the organization. Both are parents who did time in jail for the unrelated deaths of their children, one in the '80s and the other in the '90s.

"In cases where this pseudo-science was used to convict people of crimes of shaking which we can now say weren't (shaking), of course they should be reviewed as likely miscarriages of justice," Lockyer said.

Lawyer and child advocate Suzan Fraser said she hopes the province will also do something for siblings of dead children who were put up for adoption or into foster care after parents were wrongly implicated in child deaths.


Toronto Star

Duncan takes heat over $81M, OLG-owned power plant in his riding

No problem....were getting hit with the HST!

September 29, 2009
Maria Babbage
The Canadian Press
TORONTO — The Opposition Conservatives are demanding to know why the province spent $81 million to build an energy plant that powers a Windsor casino in a senior minister’s riding.

The staggering figure attached to the Windsor Energy Centre, which emerged in the government’s annual spending numbers Friday, raises a lot of questions, said Tory critic Peter Shurman.

“First of all, why was this power plant built? Why does a lottery and gaming corporation own a power plant?” he said.

Shurman raised the plant’s cost in the legislature today and called on Finance Minister Dwight Duncan to explain why so much cash went to his “pet project.”

Duncan wouldn’t elaborate about the cost of the plant, which is owned by the OLG, citing a recent lawsuit over its ownership.

But any suggestion that the plant amounted to political pork-barrelling in his Windsor riding are “wrong,” he said outside the legislative chamber.

Buttcon Energy Inc., which operated the plant until recently, announced Aug. 31
that it had filed a $355-million lawsuit against the OLG.

The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, “misfeasance (and) misrepresentation,” among other claims which have not been proven in court. The OLG said it will fight those claims in court.

Duncan seemed displeased today with the plant’s large price tag, saying it was one of the reasons he cleaned house at the problem-plagued Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.

“That’s an example of another issue that caused me great concern when I was given the file two months ago, and as a consequence, we’ve taken some steps,” he said in an interview.

Duncan announced Aug. 31 that the OLG board had been replaced and its CEO, Kelly McDougald, had been fired. That same day, the government released thousands of pages of what were deemed “unacceptable” expense claims filed by lottery executives.

McDougald has launched an $8.4-million wrongful dismissal suit against OLG, the Crown and Duncan, claiming breach of contract, moral and punitive damages, defamation and “loss of opportunity to enhance reputation.” The Ontario government has said it will dispute the claim.

Duncan said there were two casino projects approved by the province’s auditor general, which were designed to create jobs in the province.

“There are legitimate questions,” he acknowledged. “Why did we do it in the first instance? Second of all, why did OLG say it would be 40 and it came in at $80 million? And these are the kinds of issues that I’ve been tasked to deal with.”

The power plant is just another fiasco for the governing Liberals, who’ve been dogged for months by spending scandals at other Ontario agencies, Shurman said.

The Tory critic said Duncan is hiding behind a lawsuit instead of giving straight answers about why the OLG spent taxpayers’ dollars to build the plant.

“I have never seen anything so mealy-mouthed as Minister Dwight Duncan on this question,” he added.

OLG spokesman Rui Brum said he couldn’t comment on why the corporation had the plant built, as it may come up in litigation stemming from the Buttcon lawsuit.

The OLG-owned plant provides heating, cooling and backup power to the new hotel tower, convention areas and entertainment centre at Caesar’s Windsor casino, which opened in July 2008, he said.

Buttcon Ltd. started construction on the plant for the OLG in 2007. Buttcon Energy Inc. operated it until recently, he said. Angus Consulting Management Ltd. is currently operating the plant in the short term.

The Spec

A Toronto police officer who works as an investigator in the traffic services division has been charged for allegedly leaving the scene of a crash.

No doubt a great community leader!!!



A Toronto police officer who works as an investigator in the traffic services division has been charged for allegedly leaving the scene of a crash.

Det. Const. Paul Higgins, 49, was charged Sunday with failing to stop after an accident, Toronto police said in a news release on Monday.

At 1:13 p.m. ET on Saturday, police were called to a two-car collision on the Gardiner Expressway near Jameson Avenue.

Both drivers exited the highway and pulled over. A passenger in one of the cars approached the other car, asking the driver for his name and telling him that police had been called.

The driver said his name was Paul and drove off.

Higgins, who has served on the force for 24 years, is scheduled to appear in court at Old City Hall on Nov. 10.


CBC.CA

Two more quit scandal-ridden eHealth board

Hudak charges that premier allows 'Liberal friends to sneak out back door' ahead of auditor's report

Sep 24, 2009 04:30 AM
Rob Ferguson
Queen's Park Bureau
Two members of the board at eHealth Ontario – including a prominent Liberal – have quit, just before more heads are expected to roll over a spending scandal at the troubled agency.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said the timing of the departures is suspicious, with the auditor general's report on the expense account scandal due early next month and results from more Tory freedom of information requests on untendered contracts on tap for next week.

"We'd like to know exactly what circumstances suddenly changed," he told the Legislature yesterday, comparing the departures with the recent firing of Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. chief executive Kelly McDougald earlier this month.

"Why is the premier allowing his Liberal friends to sneak out the back door rather than making a big show like he did with the OLG?"

Leaving the board at the provincial electronic health records agency are Geoff Smith, a former chair of the Ontario Liberal Fund, and Khalil Barsoum, who was widely criticized for charging taxpayers $4,600 for flights to Toronto from his Florida vacation home for board meetings.

Premier Dalton McGuinty deflected Hudak's questions to Health Minister David Caplan, who said he did not know why the two men were leaving, other than for personal reasons.

"It is with regret that we have accepted their resignations," Caplan said, noting the departures first revealed yesterday by Hudak were not requested by the government.

"This is like Hogan's Heroes," shouted New Democrat MPP Gilles Bisson (Timmins-James Bay), referring to the 1960s comedy about a dim-witted sergeant at a German prisoner-of-war camp run by an ineffective commandant. "We've got Schultz and Klink ... `I know nothing.'"

Smith, whose last major fundraiser for the Liberals was a March dinner, told the Star he resigned effective July 6 because his position as chief executive of construction firm EllisDon required more time, given the challenges of the recession.

"During the period of time I was on the eHealth board, I did not feel I was doing either job well enough, and I therefore resigned from the eHealth Board in order to focus on my day job."

Barsoum, a retired IBM executive, formally submitted his resignation early this month after tipping his hand weeks earlier, said new eHealth chair Rita Burak, who was brought in by the government after the scandal exploded last spring and resulted in the departure of then-chief executive Sarah Kramer.

As for the reimbursement of his flight receipts, "he took advice from the people of the day and he in good faith submitted his expenses and they were paid," Burak said.

Hudak said the Conservative freedom of information requests include a search for any details of untendered contracts awarded to EllisDon by the government.

Caplan suggested there aren't any, and noted the company is one of several building new hospitals in the province, all jobs awarded through a public bidding process.


Toronto Star

Ontario can't drop new tax

Daddy Dalton's nose just poked out Dwight's eye, as it just grew 3 feet.


Sep 24, 2009 04:30 AM

Robert Benzie
Queen's Park Bureau Chief
Ontario's controversial harmonized sales tax is here to stay – no matter who wins the next federal or provincial elections, documents confirm.

Buried in the fine print of the accord signed last March between Ottawa and Queen's Park is a clause that ensures the new 13 per cent tax, which takes effect July 1, remains at that rate until at least 2012.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said yesterday he was not up on the minutiae of the four-page memorandum of agreement, which also stipulates the HST must be in place through 2015.

"I'm actually not familiar with that stuff," McGuinty said. "I'm sure that (Finance Minister Dwight Duncan) will be of help."

He said it was important for both levels of government to give the levy, which blends the 8 per cent provincial sales tax with the 5 per cent federal goods and services tax, a strong foundation.

"Our intention is simply to put in place a tax system that is modern and efficient and that enhances our competitiveness and enables us to create more jobs – that's what it's all about," the premier told reporters.

"In no jurisdiction that they have put this into place have they ever repealed it.

"There's a broad consensus among economists and, in their hearts of hearts, politicians as well, that this is the right thing to do," he said.

Duncan, who co-signed the pact with federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, said Ottawa insisted upon the provisions that entrench the business-friendly HST.

"That was something the federal government wanted. The Canada Revenue Agency will now collect the tax and it's enormously complex," said Duncan.

"We agreed to it. Ontario political parties, if they choose, ... can start changing it – either raising it or lowering it, frankly –in 2012," he said, noting that any modifications would have to wait until nine months after the October 2011 election.

In exchange, the federal government is giving Ontario $4.3 billion in transition funds, most of which will be passed along to lower- and middle-income families in the form of rebate cheques.

Duncan's comments came after federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff finally admitted Monday he would not repeal the tax if his party defeats Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Tories.

Ignatieff's view of the tax has national implications since an almost-identical deal with British Columbia means that province will have a 12 per cent HST as of next July 1 in exchange for $1.6 billion in federal funding.

Designed to be business-friendly, the streamlined HST will raise the price of a slew of goods and services in Ontario that are not now subject to the provincial sales tax, including gasoline, fast-food value meals, tobacco and funerals.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak expressed alarm at the emerging details in the Flaherty-Duncan accord.

"It certainly sounds like Dalton McGuinty is trying to lock Ontario taxpayers into a bad deal – a deal that will see some $2.5 billion sucked out of their pockets and into the government treasury," Hudak said.

With provincial Conservative sources suggesting the party might campaign in 2011 on cutting the tax to 12 per cent, the Tories' policy-making could be hamstrung by the agreement.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who also opposes the tax but hadn't studied the accord, said it is further evidence "why we have to stop the tax from even going in."

"We have to become more vigorous in our opposition to the tax and we have to get the people of Ontario to join the campaign against it because ... we have to make sure the tax never sees the light of day in Ontario," said Horwath.

As opposition parties strive to derail the HST, proponents have formed the Smart Taxation Alliance to help sell it.

It is made up of tax boosters like the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Ontario, the Certified General Accountants of Ontario, the Ontario Road Builders' Association, the Ontario Trucking Association, the Retail Council of Canada, TD Bank, and the Toronto Board of Trade.

The group said the tax would slash red tape and save businesses $500 million a year in administrative costs alone.

It notes that getting rid of the separate PST and GST will remove $5 billion in "layers of embedded taxes" and increase competitiveness.


Toronto Star

Officer rapped in case involving Star reporter

This officer should make a great leader of the union..........


Sep 25, 2009 11:42 AM
Robyn Doolittle
Crime Reporter
Const. Michael McCormack, who is running for the Toronto Police Association presidency, was convicted of insubordination at a police tribunal this morning.

Supt. Jane Wilcox said she did not believe McCormack's testimony that he was carrying out police business when he ran a former Star crime reporter's name through law enforcement databases.

McCormack was charged with insubordination under the Police Act after checking reporter John Duncanson's name on three police databases in January 2008.

Duncanson, who died in January, wrote extensively about police corruption in the service – including stories involving McCormack's brother, William Jr.

Earlier, McCormack told the hearing that Duncanson wanted to meet.

"He (said he) had information for me," McCormack testified. Duncanson also mentioned he was facing impaired driving charges.

McCormack testified he checked databases "to see if John was wanted or should be in court."

But prosecutor Insp. Scott Gilbert alleged it was done for personal reasons.

McCormack will likely lose three days pay. His lawyer, Peter Brauti, who could not appear today for personal reasons, will meet with Wilcox next week to set a date for sentencing submissions.

Outside the hearing, McCormack said he felt the wrong decision was made and it should not affect his run for the union.


The Star.com

Ontario deficit $2.5B worse than expected

Ontario's deficit for the last fiscal year was $2.5 billion higher than expected, driven by a 48 per cent drop in corporate tax revenue.

The provincial budget in March forecast a deficit of $3.9 billion in the 2008-09 fiscal year ended March 31, 2009.

But according to financial statements released Friday afternoon by the government, the deficit for the year stands at $6.4 billion.

Corporate tax revenues for the year totalled $6.7 billion, the statements show. In 2008, the government had pegged that number at $12.3 billion.

'Difficult choices ahead'
"As I've indicated in the past when we had numbers, we were very careful to say that there is enormous volatility in the economy," Finance Minister Dwight Duncan told CBC News. "Corporate taxes are historically the most volatile tax, and that volatility has come through."

Duncan also hinted that the government's projections for next year's deficit may go up. In March, he forecast a $14.1-billion deficit in 2009-2010.

"It'll depend on whether or not what we have seen up until March of this year continues on and it also depends on how quickly government revenues get restored to where they were," said Duncan, when asked about a possible change in that projected figure.

"One thing we know is that both growth in employment and growth in government revenues tend to lag growth in the economy. That's been the experience after every major downturn in the last generation."

The Ministry of Finance has predicted Ontario's GDP will contract by 2.5 per cent for 2009 before growing by 2.3 per cent the following year.

The government has some "difficult choices ahead," Duncan said, adding he would elaborate during his fall statement, expected in October.

He would not say if the government would stick to its plan to eliminate deficits by fiscal year 2015-2016.

Opposition questions Liberal credibility
The Progressive Conservatives said "it was no surprise" the Liberals waited until Friday afternoon to release the public accounts.

"Premier Dalton McGuinty has lost all credibility when it comes to managing the province's finances," said Opposition finance critic Norm Miller.

"We fell faster and harder than other provinces in this recession."

The New Democrats charged that the government was always playing politics with its budget forecasts and should agree to set up an independent budget office like the federal government's.

"Ontarians should expect an impartial budget document, not one clouded by partisan political spin like we've gotten from the McGuinty government," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

"Each and every update out of the mouths of the premier and the finance minister was rosy. It turns out their spin was far from the truth," she said.

The province's debt grew this fiscal year by $14.7 billion, which included some accounting practice changes, to $113.2 billion, according to the documents.

But Duncan touted his government's management of finances, saying spending growth was brought to its lowest level in eight years.

Total spending for the year stood at $96.9 billion, an increase of 0.37 per cent from the previous fiscal year.

With files from The Canadian Press

CBC.CA

Toronto officer charged with sexual assault

A Toronto police officer with four years' service has been charged with sexual assault.

Const. Richard Akunyili, 35, is alleged to have sexually assaulted a female victim at her home Wednesday. The officer was off-duty at the time, police said.

Akunyili works in the Toronto Police Service's 52 Division, which covers a central downtown area south of Bloor Street.

Akunyili, who was arrested and charged Thursday, is due to make a court appearance Monday.


CBC.CA

Police officer cleared in crash that killed colleague.

September 25, 2009
Canadian Press

LONDON, Ont. — Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared a provincial police officer of any criminal wrongdoing in a crash that killed her colleague.

On July 6, Const. Alan Hack died when the cruiser in which he was a passenger collided with a tractor-trailer in Elgin County.

The Special Investigations Unit says the driver, Const. Lynn Neale, drove through a stop sign moments before the crash.

The SIU says it appears Neale never saw the truck until the last moment due to her focus on a suspect trying to elude police.

The agency adds that Neale did nothing a “reasonable person” in a similar situation wouldn’t have.

Hack, who was 31, was in the back seat and neither he nor Neale was wearing a seatbelt. Both were thrown from the cruiser.

The Spec

What?

Sharon Bamford photo


No Spin and from The Toronto Sun, props for Connie Woodcock
I wonder what Fantino's fan club at the Sun thinks of this article?

Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino is well known for taking his religion seriously.

I realize that makes a lot of people nervous in our secular society but as an active Anglican myself, I rather like it. Surely it's a good thing that the most influential police officer in Ontario is a happy warrior when it comes to the major Christian prohibitions -- no killing, for example, and no stealing. What can be wrong with that?

But a couple of weeks ago, he said something that bothered me to no end.

He was commenting on the decision of an Ontario judge that struck down a particularly contentious section of the law against stunt driving that allows police to seize a speeder's vehicle and licence immediately -- before the driver has been found guilty in court.

The judge found the seizures to be unconstitutional since the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees a person is considered innocent until proven guilty.

UNDER APPEAL

But the OPP are going to continue seizing vehicles while the decision is under appeal and Fantino justified it by calling it "the Lord's work."

"When you look at the carnage that we're experiencing on our highways, the kinds of injuries we're having to deal with, the extraordinary health costs, the loss of productivity, the loss of a loved one, all of which is preventable, and you look at speed being a causal factor," he told a Sun Media reporter. "I think we're doing the Lord's work, personally. And we'll continue doing it."

Seizing vehicles is the Lord's work?

Oh really? Funny, but I don't recall the Almighty making any references whatever to "stunt driving" and I wasn't aware He got involved in constitutional matters, although I'm pretty sure that "thou shalt not steal" is up fairly high on His list of priorities.

And seizing the car of someone who has not been proven guilty seems a lot like stealing to me.

The particular case involved an Ontario grandmother who was caught doing 51 km/h over the limit. The stunt driving law kicks in at 50. She says stunt driving was about the farthest thing from her mind. She was just trying to get past a big truck as quickly as she could and who among us hasn't done that?

Professional drivers will tell you that you really don't want to be in the trucker's blind spot any longer than necessary.

There's a big difference between a woman passing a truck quickly and a bunch of kids in hot cars out street racing, but the law doesn't allow for differentiation. When you cross the 50 km/h threshold, you're done and the fine ranges up to $10,000.

The law has been called everything from ridiculous to odious and to hear the OPP commissioner say enforcing it is doing the Lord's work is offensive.

I wonder what he calls that other ridiculous and odious practice that allows Ontario cops to seize a vehicle when the driver blows .05 on a breathalyzer test even though the law draws the line on impairment at .08?

Now I don't like Bible "proofers" -- those objectionable people who are forever quoting scripture to prove whatever they want. But this time, I can't resist.

So here are a few words for the commissioner straight from the horse's mouth. "Blessed are those who show mercy; mercy shall be shown to them."

And better yet, "Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of right; the kingdom of heaven is theirs."

So no, I don't think Fantino is doing the Lord's work on this one. Maybe that other guy's, though...

CONNIE.WOODCOCK@SUNMEDIA.CA

The Toronto Sun