Suspend Fantino, Brant's lawyer demands

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NDP calls for Fantino 'to resign or be fired' over Brant wiretaps
Monday, July 21, 2008

The Ontario New Democratic Party is calling for the province's police commissioner Julian Fantino to resign or be fired for controversial remarks captured on a wiretapped conversation with aboriginal protest leader Shawn Brant during last summer's aboriginal day of action.

OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said he acted in the public interest when he tried to convince Mohawk protest leader Shawn Brant to remove blockades during last summer's aboriginal day of action. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)In OPP transcripts of the three phone calls, recorded last June, Fantino tells Brant in a telephone conversation that "your whole world’s going to come crashing down" and threatens to "do everything I can within your community and everywhere to destroy your reputation" if Brant did not order aboriginal protesters to withdraw from blockade sites in eastern Ontario.

NDP justice critic Peter Kormos said Fantino's rhetoric flies in the face of the Ipperwash public inquiry, which called on police to forge new ties with the aboriginal community in the wake of the police shooting death of protester Dudley George during a standoff at Ipperwash Provincial Park in 1995.

The transcripts were made public last week after the CBC successfully argued that a publication ban on Fantino's testimony in a preliminary hearing last August should be lifted. Preliminary hearings are held to determine if there is enough evidence to warrant a trial.

Brant, who waived his right to a publication ban, faces several charges in connection with First Nations blockades on Highway 401, Highway 2 and a CN Rail line near the eastern Ontario town of Deseronto on June 29, 2007. The actions prompted provincial police to close Canada's busiest highway and CN to suspend all rail service on the Montreal-Toronto corridor.

During his testimony, Fantino said he gave Brant a deadline, and was prepared to move in if the protesters didn't lift the blockades. He said he believed the public interest demanded that the highway be reopened.

"There comes a time when the balance of the greater public good shifts, and the feeling was that under the circumstances, this situation could no longer continue, and we were, in fact, preparing to move on the blockades," he told the court.

In an interview with the Toronto Sun published Monday, Fantino seemed to downplay the controversy over his comments, saying "people should not be tried in the media." He noted that the legal proceedings against Brant, whose trial is expected to begin in January, are ongoing.

"I am not going to worry about screaming headlines," Fantino is quoted as saying while on vacation with his family. "These people doing all of this talking were not there and don't know all of the complications of the day."

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant's office said he can't comment on Fantino's remarks because the affair is still before the courts.

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Suspend Fantino, Brant's lawyer demands

THE CANADIAN PRESS

The lawyer for an aboriginal protester wants the Ontario government to suspend the commissioner of the provincial police force and investigate comments he made to the protester during an aboriginal day of action.

The comments were contained in transcripts of wiretapped conversations between commissioner Julian Fantino and protester Shawn Brant, played during Brant's preliminary hearing and made public on Friday. Brant is facing nine charges related to the events of that day.

The documents suggest Ontario Provincial Police were minutes away from moving in on First Nations blockades on Highway 401.

The transcripts indicate Fantino told Brant he would do ``everything I can within your community and everywhere else to destroy your reputation." Fantino also told Brant "your world's going to come crashing down" during the negotiations to end the tense standoff with police on June 29, 2007.

Lawyer Peter Rosenthal told a news conference the tap on Brant's cellphone was made without obtaining a court order. Rosenthal says while the Criminal Code allows for wiretaps without a court order in extreme situations, there was plenty of advance notice about the day of action last year.

The heated exchanges between Brant and Fantino seem to contradict the force's own guidelines when dealing with aboriginal groups.