The partisan audacity of uniformed police officers sporting Thin Blue Line patches on their
uniforms while exchanging high-fives with the Convoy Clowns in Ottawa was a disquieting
reveal for some surprised Canadians in February 2022.
The Emergencies Act inquiry further exposed the breadth of the penetration of fascism at the
local Ottawa cop shop, when it was found ranking officers had betrayed their political masters
and shared police enforcement strategies with the Bible-toting anti-mandate, anti-Trudeau
occupiers.
This apparent back-alley alliance with the Christofascists’ assault on representative democracy
might explain why our men in blue won’t lay charges against law-breaking Conservative
politicians like Jason Kenney or Doug Ford.
It also raises the question whether pandemic polarization conferred immunity from prosecution
on some politicians. Is a substantial segment of the local constabulary in cahoots with
Conservatives Party theology, and is the media keeping quiet because it is thrilled to be invited
to play in the Ford Family sandbox with Toronto’s John Tory and Mark Sutcliffe of Ottawa?
Conservatives in office act with impunity, as if in possession of a James Bond-like licence to kill
the democratic process, treat the treasury as a personal bank account and turn lawmaking into an
act of selective suppression of rights of the many in favour of the few.
The OPP went after inconsequential independent MPP Randy Hillier over his Convoy tactics.
The RCMP charged Sen. Patrick Brazeau almost a decade ago for various offences involving his
behaviour – but nothing that rose to the level of influence peddling, graft or embezzlement.
Sadly, detectives in street clothes draw a clear line in the muck when it comes to law-breaking
politicians cultivating developer friends. The message is move along, nothing to see here.
But a trapdoor waiting for Doug and his ilk. There is something called a private
prosecution process in Ontario, and it is the next best thing in a system where the police lack the
courage, resources and motivation to lay charges on dishonest politicians in high office.
It means an incensed demographic of social democrats can rationally fantasize about ending the
political career of Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his fawning, servile band of constitutional
reprobates.
Private prosecutions serve an important function, allowing individuals to address gaps or
deficiencies in the public prosecution system.
“Law enforcement agencies often lack the resources required to address violations that should be
prosecuted,” points out a government website.
The FAQ section on the site should add a footnote: “Such prosecutions might be a lifeline to
salvaging what’s left of responsible government for 15 million Ontarians.”
Dodgy Doug may think he has carte blanche dictatorial powers till at least June 2026, but
politically vigilant people from Timmins to Toronto want Ford and his inept fellow MPPs out of
action, pronto – before the province is carved up like territory in a Five Family crime drama
reminiscent of The Godfather.
For those experiencing a hitherto unknown level of fear and loathing for the kleptocratic Ford, it
is time to declare war, to figuratively harken back to a 1947 New York idiom from the same
Mob flick, when crime lords would vacate their homes and relocate to sparsely furnished
apartments in safer areas by “Going to the mattresses.”
In 2022 Ontario, going to the mattresses means attending at an Ontario courthouse and detailing
a belief, on reasonable grounds backed with sufficient details, (names, addresses and telephone
numbers of witnesses) one intends to call to a hearing to testify as to whether Ford has
committed a criminal offence.
A mere six months into his second Demolish Ontario Governance Tour, polls show a growing
number of citizens want to arrest the vain, self-centred and ruthless demagogue and maybe tie
him to a tree on the Greenbelt while the 10-week Queen’s Park recess transpires.
It is Year 5 of running amok in the public square, as the stridently malevolent Ford regime
continues to pump out a steady stream of bad legislation, publishing diktats from Toronto and
Muskoka the likes of which have not been seen since divine right of kings.
Ford’s rogue parliamentarians continue to defy common-law norms, ramming overreaching
statutes through the legislature late at night while offering nonsensical rationalizations for
shooting democracy in the head.
John Tory, drawing from a pool of 1.8 million voters, outpolled all councillors, each of whom
was drawing from a base of a mere 70,000 voters. Absurdly, King Doug cites this comparative
statistical irrelevancy to anoint Tory the President of Toronto. Following an uninspired victory,
veto powers are safely stashed in Tory’s oversized money clip.
The Latin maxim ignorantia juris non excusat establishes that ignorance of the [constitutional]
law is no excuse. Doug Ford is out of excuses at law.
He has spent the past 54 months genuflecting to the multitudes of self-centred, small-minded
Ontarians who voted for him in 2018 and 2022 (and who would probably vote for a Trump-
DeSantis or an Uncle Doug Ford-Nephew Mikey Ford ticket, if offered the opportunity).
The public can be granted generous slack for blissful unawareness of private prosecutions as a
tool to make rogue, overbearing politicians more accountable.
This may have been the sole silver lining lurking in the developments that led to the Freedumb
Convoy planting flags in an Ottawa church in July 2022, five months after the Jan/Feb Mad Max
Bernier Occupation of Parliament Hill had expired for lack of common sense.
In a demonstration of rank disconnection from reality, The Crazy Convoyists had shape-shifted
into a congregation, The United People of Canada, TUPOC, renting St. Brigid’s Church in
Ottawa.
Locals wouldn’t tolerate more dunces parading around city streets, less than a mile from the
scene of the original crime. But by eviction day in late August, the Convoyists defeated, they had
taught a legal lesson to a huge Ontario demographic now on a mission to restore democracy:
filing a private prosecution to fight Doug Ford’s single-minded attack on the Constitution and
quite potentially the Criminal Code was an alternative to hanging on in quiet desperation.
In short, TUPOC failed in its private prosecution allegations, but the public took note.
One such concerned Ontarian is Patrick Macklem, Professor Emeritus of Law, University of
Toronto, who is requesting the Ontario Provincial Police launch an investigation into Ford and
any potential offences contrary to the Criminal Code, including:
● “…bribery, fraud, breach of trust, corruption and influence-peddling that have been or are
being committed by elected or public officials in the Government of Ontario, land
developers, or other private actors who stand to gain from the Province’s plans to open
the Greenbelt for development.”
Prof. Macklem’s new pen pals are Commissioner Thomas Carrique of the Ontario Provincial
Police and his Deputy Commissioner Chuck Cox.
The upshot is the professor has a new side hustle right out of a police drama: “Informant”. He
will be asked if the police have investigated the incident, whether he has previously sworn an
Information in the matter, whether another Justice of the Peace refused to proceed and, if so,
whether he has any new evidence with respect to the offences.
“I, alongside many Ontarians, am particularly concerned by recent media reports that show that
wealthy land speculators stand to benefit immensely from the Government’s proposal to open the
Greenbelt for development,” wrote Macklem in a Dec. 4, 2022 letter to the OPP, seeking a
criminal investigation into Greenbelt development.
“Since at least 2018, many of these speculators purchased large tracts of Greenbelt-protected
land and have donated significant funds to secure the election of public officials who are
currently responsible for the Greenbelt’s development.”
Macklem notes some of these purchases occurred after Ford’s re-election in June of this year but
before the Government’s decision to open the Greenbelt had been made public.
The Justice of the Peace will review the application to determine if an Information (criminal
charge) can be sworn/affirmed which meets the requirements of the Criminal Code. If the Justice
of the Peace is satisfied that the materials presented meet the requirements, the court clerk will
prepare an Information to start the private prosecution process.
The Criminal Code’s section 119 offer up some exciting prose on the matters at hand:
● …being a member of the legislature of a province, directly or indirectly, corruptly
accepts, obtains, agrees to accept or attempts to obtain, for themselves or another person,
any money, valuable consideration, office, place or employment in respect of anything
done or omitted or to be done or omitted by them in their official capacity…”
Ontarians that want enforced the checks and balances and unwritten traditions that a government
must respect, (even if it has a majority shelf-life of 42 months remaining), may have been shown
a pathway to real-life salvation in a courtroom, not the deliverance promised by Christofascist
wannabe-Jesus street preachers.
Private prosecutions are complex and technical proceedings. Criminal trials require the
prosecutor, public or private, to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the alleged offence
occurred. This is a high evidentiary threshold.
On the other hand, the offence of breach of public trust has a lower standard of proof: it does not
require a quid pro quo or a smoking gun for its commission. Courts have also confirmed that an
accused need not be aware that he or she was breaching the public’s trust; it requires that a
reasonable person would conclude that there was a breach of trust.
Society as a whole is the beneficiary where formal, positive citizen interaction with the justice
system results in some additional control over official discretion, in other words, doing the job of
a police authority that either won’t or can’t lay charges against an arrogant politician on a mission
to please developers.
Under the public regime (i.e., police), prosecution of certain offences may proceed very slowly
for lack of resources, or not at all. Private citizens, as complainants, have a statutory right to fill
this void.
In Ford Nation, there is no accountability. There is no gravitas. Everything is a transaction. The
public good never figures into the equation. The great question in Ontario politics is a simple
one: How much longer will the people stand for it?
