'GROUNDLESS' TO SAY CROWN DELAY DELIBERATE: A-G

Police Corruption

The Attorney-General of Ontario is rejecting any suggestion that
senior Crown attorneys intentionally delayed the high-profile
prosecution of six former Toronto drug squad officers so the case
would be thrown out.

"That is just simply baseless and groundless," said Chris Bentley
yesterday after a luncheon speech in Toronto at an Ontario Bar
Association conference.

"There is a lot of speculation and a lot of commentary. I think we
need to be careful about the commentary. The case is within the
review period. We need to let the lawyers look at the issues of
appeal," the Attorney-General said.

The Liberal government has faced numerous calls for an independent
inquiry since Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer stayed all
charges against the six officers on Jan. 31 because of unreasonable
delay by the Crown.

The officers were facing more than 30 charges in what the lead
investigator of the special task force that probed the now disbanded
drug squad described in 2003 as "the largest police corruption
scandal known in Canadian history."

Their trial was not scheduled to start until this month, more than
four years after they were charged, because of what the judge said
were repeated failures by the Crown to meet its obligation to
disclose all relevant evidence to the defendants.

The prosecution did not "place any evidence before the court by way
of explanation for what is presumptively inordinate delay," said
Judge Nordheimer in his ruling.

While Mr. Bentley stressed it would be improper to allege the delay
was intentional, he declined to provide any explanation for what went wrong.

"Obviously the result is troubling in this case," he said. He
declined to talk about "the specifics" of the prosecution because
lawyers in the Crown Law Office of the Ministry are "working around
the clock" to decide whether to appeal.