DRUG SQUAD INQUIRY URGED

Lawyers Rip Cops' Own Probe

Three Toronto lawyers seek a public inquiry into allegations of Toronto
Police drug squad corruption and the way those complaints were handled. A
highly secretive RCMP-led internal affairs probe into the drug squad
scandal does not go nearly far enough and a "truly public inquiry" is
needed, lawyers Clayton Ruby, Edward Sapiano and Peter Biro wrote to
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty yesterday.

The three also urged McGuinty to form an independent and "genuinely
civilian-controlled" investigation and discipline body to handle all
complaints of police misconduct.

"The public has no confidence in the integrity and fairness of the police
complaints process, one marked by self-policing and self-investigation of
the police by the police," they wrote.

In April 1999, Sapiano and Ruby were among 10 prominent defence lawyers
whose complaints of inappropriate conduct by members of the central field
command drug squad ultimately prompted Chief Julian Fantino to form a
25-member internal affairs task force in 2001.

Sources say the task force, headed by RCMP Staff Supt. John Neily,
delivered its recommendations to Ontario Crown Law Office prosecutors in
the summer. As yet, no charges have been laid.

The three lawyers did not attack the Neily task force, but they assert its
terms of reference and mandate "have never been disclosed" and its legal
status "remains a mystery."

The probe does not "constitute any kind of public inquiry" or satisfy
public expectations, they wrote.

"We just don't know what they have done," Biro said. "We don't know what
disclosure will be made of their findings."

Citing several examples of alleged drug squad brutality and corruption, the
three wrote that some officers consider themselves "above the law."

Citizens allege they were "physically and psychologically terrorized" by
police and "many thousands of dollars in cash and ... valuables (were
stolen) from their homes, businesses and safety deposit boxes," the letter
states.

The complaints were "ignored, dismissed out of hand or simply shuffled to
the back-burner" of the internal affairs unit, they wrote.

Sapiano said it is not only individuals but the "entire administration of
justice" that has fallen prey to rogue officers and a system that didn't
want to admit its flaws.

Biro, who has several clients who have filed civil suits against Toronto
Police and individual drug squad members, said there is a bigger issue than
the Neily probe's focus of alleged police criminality. "At issue is the
integrity of the entire process. You have a drug squad that has been a law
unto itself," Biro said.