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Thank you to a Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno for highlighting a judiciary that is totally unjust and for spelling out the circumstances in the abuse of Dafonte Miller.
I am 75 years old, white, have enjoyed privilege for all of my life and I don’t trust our judiciary or the people who are responsible for governing in our province or our country when it comes to criminal justice, policing and the courts.
I am still reeling from the murder of young Sammy Yatim and the fact that police officer James Forcillo was released early, when his conviction and sentencing was already totally inadequate. The other officers involved in Sammy’s murder weren’t even charged.
But the recent decision by Ontario Supreme Court Justice Joseph Di Luca to acquit one of the brothers, Christian Theriault, who brutally assaulted Dafonte Miller, and the tap on the hand of off-duty police officer Michael Theriault who was convicted not of aggravated assault, but merely assault, made me sick to my stomach.
Dafonte Miller was a kid at the time of the assault, 19 years old. He was breaking into cars to steal what, coins, stuff? Did he deserve a beating that cost him an eye and could have cost him his life if he hadn’t been able to escape long enough to bang at the door of a neighbour and beg for help? Is this what we’ve become, a society that punishes someone who steals a loaf of bread by cutting off his hand? Or taking out the eye of a young boy who was stealing small change?
How could the judge in this case possibly have dismissed charges against one brother altogether, even though they both participated in the brutal assault? How could the conviction of the off-duty officer be for assault and not aggravated assault? Where in God’s name is the justice, the decency, in our judiciary?
There is no question that Black people are treated unequally by our police and judiciary. That has been proven again and again. It is sickening. There is also no question that police are out of control when it comes to law enforcement.
I may be 75, white and privileged, but if someone I loved was in the midst of a mental health crisis, I would not call the police. If I saw someone breaking into my car, I might yell at them to get lost, but I would not call the police and have on my conscience the fate of that person, whether it be a brutal beating or being thrown into a prison system that is also brutal and Inhumane. I just don’t trust the police or the judiciary period! And that is a shame.
Fran Bazos, retired teacher, Newmarket
