Judges slam police for unnecessary jailing of non-Ontario residents
Jun 25, 2015 By Matthew Friedberg
Some police forces appear to have trouble understanding when it is appropriate — to say nothing of legal — to hold people in custody pending a bail hearing, three judges have recently noted in strongly worded rulings, going so far as to call the problem “systemic.”
In the span of just three months, three cases against alleged impaired drivers in Toronto and Mississauga were thrown out because the courts found police had violated the accused person’s rights by erroneously asserting they had to be detained as they were not considered residents of Ontario.
“I infer that this practice is entrenched in the (Toronto Police Service) release process and likely has [been] for some time and will continue unless the court denounces that practice in the strongest terms available,” Justice Howard Borenstein wrote on March 5, staying proceedings against Melanie Doyon, a Montrealer arrested while in Toronto for business.
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