Fantino’s sworn testimony vs. Fantino’s emails

Posted on February 4, 2010 | 4 Comments

gary_hospital-dec01-07-small.jpgUPDATED 1513 Feb 04/10: So, who’s telling the truth – Gary McHale (L, in hospital after being attacked by Six Nations thugs Dec 01/07) or Julian Fantino? 

A casual reader of Fantino’s emails and those of other OPP officers might be forgiven for wondering if Fantino and his cohorts were simply a little over-zealous in an honest attempt to shut down a dangerous, violent criminal who was really the one responsible for terrorizing Caledonia, and NOT all those native occupiers who were caught on film committing crime after crime while police watched.  (See this document, too, and the legal cases here).

After all, we’re supposed to be able to trust the words of a police chief or commissioner, aren’t we? Well, see now, that’s the problem…

I’d like to give you some resources to help you decide, all on your own, if Julian Fantino is lying to the public and in his emails to try to silence a thorn in the side of McGuinty/OPP racial policing policies, or if he is really and truly just a good cop with a reasonable concern about a dangerous menace to the people of Caledonia and Six Nations named Gary McHale:

Fantino’s emails as quoted in the media 

Until recently, there was – with one notable,  yet unfortunate exception [INFO] – virtually zero investigative jounalism being conducted into the Caledonia situation, especially into the evidence gathered by Gary McHale and CANACE founders about OPP misconduct. Recently, two journalists of note did something quite novel: they met with us, listened to us and reviewed some of our documents. They were Christie Blatchford of the Globe and CBC National News investigative producer/reporter John Nicol. The Toronto Star also produced a short article after their pieces appeared.

John Nicol came to meet with us in person for more than 4 hours because, as he put it, “I wanted to see if you guys were the real deal.” It would seem he concluded that we were:

Fantino’s sworn testimony as per Court transcript:

Here is what Fantino testified to under oath on Nov 26/08 at Gary McHale’s preliminary hearing as taken from pages 35-40 of the transcript — after McHale went through a long list of crimes that had been committed in Caledonia (by native protesters).

Q (McHale): If I’m going around creating all this mischief, why has the OPP not charged me?

A (Fantino): For the lack of evidence. We don’t charge people frivolously, we move on evidence before us and evidence we discover through investigations.

Ontario Court of Justice transcript: Fantino testimony, Nov 26/08 [PDF, see p35-40] 

The only charge to date against any CANACE founder since we became involved in the Caledonia crisis is the current ‘Counselling Mischief Not Committed’ charge vs. Gary McHale laid on Dec 07/07 which, at worst (assuming he is even convicted) represents a non-violent, minor act of civil disobedience in which no further crime was committed, no one was hurt, no one was inconvenienced and no property damage was caused.

For all of Fantino’s statements – in and outside of court – blaming McHale for all of Caledonia’s troubles, the mighty OPP – with all the resources at its disposal and, after conducting 3 separate investigations (that we know of) with the express purpose of charging Gary McHale with a crime – has NO evidence to lay any other charge against him.

Is there anything else you need to know to decide who is lying to you?

More evidence of Fantino/OPP shenanigans

If that still isn’t enough for you, the document below contains links to vital documents/references re Fantino’s emails and his other abuses of power (including making a charge of Assault Police disappear for his native buddy ‘Bullet’), not to mention testimony from OPP officer Jeffrey Bird who confirmed that, yes, racial policing is most definitely practiced by the OPP and finally:  proof of political interference by the Ontario government in using the OPP to try to silence a Caledonia resident who is also a Hamilton Police Service officer (Fantino was involved in that one, too):

  • CANACE reference, Feb 01/10: Journalist’s Quick Reference Evidence Guide [PDF, 9p] (If the URL doesn’t work, go to this link and download the latest copy in the Resources for Journalists section)

About the OPP emails

All emails from the OPP were obtained through disclosure. They were only able to be released after being entered into evidence or after being attached to Gary McHale’s recent bail review application. Note that while the Globe and CBC stories quote from recently received emails not previously released, Gary McHale is not ready to release the source docs to the public just yet. Politicians and bonafide media outlets can contact either Mark Vandermaas, 519.457.0709, info@voiceofcanada.ca; or Gary, 289.286.0423, info@canace.ca for a PDF document containing a selection of emails between Fantino and his officers.

Readers may, however, read Gary’s factum for his bail review application which will be held on March 05/10 at the Hamilton Courthouse, 45 Main Street East, Hamilton:

  • Ontario Court of Justice, Feb 02/10: Notice of Application for Bail Review [PDF]
  • Ontario Court of Justice Feb 02/10: Factum re Bail Review application [PDF]

So…who do YOU think is telling the truth?

There is no doubt whatsover that Julian Fantino and the OPP – following his orders – decided to get Gary McHale charged with an offence to keep him out of Caledonia and to appease the very native thugs who had assaulted both McHale and Fantino’s officers. I renew the call we originally made of both the OPP and Minister Bartolucci that the RCMP be called in to investigate the conduct of the OPP officers involved in this shameful affair to see if charges of obstructing ’or otherwise perverting’  the course of justice should be laid: 

P.S. About Fantino’s labelling of the charge against him as being ‘vexatious’ and the Crown saying what Fantino told Haldimand Council in his email of April 07/07 simply couldn’t be a threat? 1. The charge was issued by a Superior Court judge after listening to three (3) government lawyers argue against McHale, so Fantino is insulting the Court by calling the charge vexatious. 2. Both the Justice of the Peace and the Superior Court judge determined that what he said DID constitute a threat. Moreover, the Crown agreed. It turns out that the Crown told the Superior Court justice one story (yes, it was a threat), but yesterday told the Justice of the Peace a different story – that it wasn’t a threat. See these two links: 

Mark Vandermaas, Editor
VoiceofCanada.ca
info@voiceofcanada.ca
Co-founder, Canadian Advocates for Charter Equality
www.canace.ca

References

This entry was posted in 1. VoC's MOST IMPORTANT POST, Caledonia - Dec 01/07, CANACE, CANACE News, Christie Blatchford, Fantino on Trial, Fantino v Truth, FantinoGate, MUST SEE, Native Protests - Caledonia, One Law for All!, Planet Earth calling, Racial Policing, Truth in Media. Bookmark the permalink.