January 13, 2010
With a few strokes of the pen, it appears that the McGuinty government is once again set to cover for their appointed civil rights destructor, Julian Fantino. Mr. Fantino told the media just days ago that he intends to “vigorously” defend himself against the criminal charge he’s facing as a result of his threatening email to Haldimand council in 2007, but the crown (an employee of the McGuinty Liberals) appears to be quickly taking steps to subvert the efforts of CANACE and a superior court judge to see Mr. Fantino face the music.
After being cleared of any wrong doing by Monte Kwinter before an investigation into complaints against him had been written, Fantino was emboldened to continue to his campaign against the charter rights and freedoms of non-Native citizens in Ontario, and escalated both his rhetoric against us, and his orders to oppress us. See FantinoGate, this site, Caledoniawakeupcall.com, voiceofcanada, & CANACE for in depth coverage of his attacks on democracy.
We have always had faith in the justice system to uphold the laws that the OPP have refused to, and as such we moved the battle to restore law and order into the courts in January 2008. It began with my efforts to see a Haldimand councillor charged after an assault on me, and exploded into superior court where judges have upheld our beliefs and consistently rebuked the crown for their position that OPP officers and government officials are not subject to the law during a Native land claim.
In each step we have taken, the crown (as employees of McGuinty) have argued against any charge that any CANACE founder has attempted to see laid, and once over ruled in superior court have intervened to stay the charges each time. The criteria is simple. If one of us tries to lay any charge against anyone, they interfere and attempt to paint us as abusing the courts. No judge has ever agreed with this position but they continue to use it as their mantra.
The writing is on the wall that another cover up is imminent. When Gary McHale took this charge before a justice of the peace in Cayuga to be certified, the crown argued against it in an effort to prevent their fellow McGuinty employee from facing the music. The justice refused to certify the charge.
Gary is not a man who is discouraged by setbacks such as this so he took it to a superior court judge where the crown once again argued against holding Julian accountable for his actions. Judge Crane did not buy their argument and the charge was ordered to be certified. According to at least one legal advisor who spoke to CANACE this makes the charge more powerful than if the OPP had laid it.
According to Dalton McGuinty however, the fact that a superior court judge ordered this charge is something to be downplayed and ignored. Asked by the media yesterday if Mr. Fantino would be suspended while he faces a criminal charge, McGuinty answered “Um, my understanding is that it’s a private information umm being put forward by a um private citizen. It’s going to work its way through the courts, uh and I’ll allow that to, to uh take its normal course”
What? You’re going to “allow it to take its normal course”? Vs. what Mr. McGuinty? You did just clearly imply that you have the option to interfere with the courts, and that in my opinion is exactly what we’re seeing happen.
Once the charge was certified, Gary McHale became the prosecutor for this case. The crown has the option to interfere, but since they’ve already demonstrated a conflict of interest by arguing against the charge on several occasions, it obviously can not be prosecuted fairly by the local crown. The appropriate thing to do now would be to bring in a crown from outside of Ontario as is being done in the case of Michael Bryant to ensure that there is no bias, and that is exactly what Mr. McHale requested.
In a letter sent to McHale by the office of the Attorney General, they announced their intention to “intervene” and to assign someone from the “Justice Prosecutions Unit of the Crown Law Office – Criminal”. Someone well within the control of the McGuinty liberals. They then go on to assure Gary that “the crown assigned to this matter will fairly and appropriately apply all of the applicable legal standards to this case as are applied to every other criminal case in Ontario, regardless of who is charged, or who commenced the charge”
Then came another letter from the office of the AG informing us that they have stepped in to change the court date for Julian’s first appearance to this Friday January 15, 2009 at 9am. My understanding is that Julian is out of the country at the moment and will therefore obviously not be at this hearing.
Why the change? It’s simple in my view. With Fantino out of the country, they go into court, stay the charge, and when Fantino comes back he gets to claim to have been vindicated by the political interference of the McGuinty Liberals and the crown. Then he can continue his appointed course of abolishing the civil rights of non-Natives while collecting a hefty salary of $250,000 of your taxes each year.
With less than 48 hours before this hearing, it’s certainly possible that the crown could shock us all by deciding to do what they’ve been claiming they will do which is show no favouritism toward Julian, but I’m not holding my breath.
Jeff Parkinson
JeffParkinson.ca 