POLICE CORRUPTION SCANDAL

Ruling Could Spark Change In Legal System

Amid Mounting Calls For Inquiry, Premier Asks Attorney General To
Study Case And Report

KITCHENER-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.

It also flushed away a probe that cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
McGuinty promised that Attorney General Chris Bentley, who left the
conference early, would have some answers for the public soon.

"It is troubling. It is of real significance to our government on
behalf of Ontarians. Our job is to give expression to the concerns of
Ontarians and to respond to those in the best way possible ... "I've
asked the attorney general ... to take all the time that is
necessary, but no more than the time that is necessary for us to be
thoughtful. We didn't set a specific timetable."

Sources told the Star the government knew as early as last summer
that the charges could be tossed due to unconstitutional delays.

Officials, however, privately insist that it was legal wrangling by
the officers' lawyers that hindered the process as much as anything.

Also, while Nordheimer is a well-regarded jurist, there are hopes
within the government that, as an expert in civil law, his ruling on
a criminal matter might be lacking.

With mounting calls for a public inquiry, McGuinty urged Ontarians to
allow Bentley time to study the ruling. The attorney general has 30
days to seek leave to appeal.

Toronto defence lawyer Edward Sapiano, who helped spark the police
corruption probe nearly a decade ago after several of his clients
complained of mistreatment by the drug squad, said Friday there
"absolutely needs to be a public inquiry" into why such an important
case was allowed to collapse.

Also on Friday, Bentley said any bid for an appeal would have to be
based on the points of law cited in Nordheimer's decision.

"There a number of different statutory rights to appeal. We'll speak
to those if and when they decide that there is an appropriate ground
of appeal," he said, insisting the political embarrassment of the
debacle would play no part in the government's legal strategy. "Let's
be clear, you launch an appeal if there are grounds to appeal.
They're grounds based on law, they're not grounds based on politics," he said.

Progressive Conservative MPP Elizabeth Witmer (Kitchener-Waterloo)
said yesterday at the Liberal conference that Ontarians are demanding
answers from the Grits - and soon.

"It's obviously a very serious situation and I think the public
senses that, too," said Witmer.

"I would hope that Mr. McGuinty very soon would be in a position to
reassure the public as to what action is going to be taken," she said.

NDP MPP Peter Kormos (Welland) has said the "justice system is in
chaos and the McGuinty Liberals are ignoring the problem."