DRUG SQUAD TRIAL GOES AHEAD AS SUPREME COURT DENIES APPEAL

The Supreme Court of Canada has turned down a bid from five former
drug squad officers to have a decision sending them to trial overturned.

The court sent notification Monday morning that the officers' motion
seeking leave to appeal an Ontario Court of Appeal decision had been rejected.

John Schertzer, Steven Correia, Joseph Miched, Ned Maodus and Raymond
Pollard wanted the country's highest court to overturn a ruling
issued last October, in which Ontario's Court of Appeal rejected a
lower-court ruling that their right to a fair trial had been
infringed by delays.

The five are alleged to have falsified notes, robbed and beaten drug
dealers and conducted illegal searches between 1997 and 2002.

The five former officers argued the three appeal court judges made
several legal errors.

For instance, they said the judges failed to give due deference to
the conclusions of Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer, who stayed
the charges against the officers in January 2008.

Nordheimer had ruled their right to a timely trial had been breached
by the "glacial" pace it took the Crown to disclose mountains of evidence.

The appeal judges overturned his ruling for five of the former drug
squad officers, while upholding it for a sixth, Richard Benoit.