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news

Newsstand: September 4, 2009

By André Bovee-Begun

Newspaper pages are filled with chatter and even a bit of hard news in the wake of Darcy Allan Sheppard’s death and the resulting arrest of Michael Bryant, who was once Ontario’s Attorney General. Bryant is now facing criminal negligence and reckless driving charges, and the courts are having a hard time giving the former AG a fair trial.
Media coverage has been kind to Bryant, preferring to focus on Sheppard’s prior history of arrests and to use speculation that he may have been drunk at the time of the accident as a jumping-off point for discussions of who should bear the blame. The Sun trolls for controversy, trumpeting that “there is nothing stopping you from drinking forty ounces of vodka and cycling along Toronto streets,” but the Globe goes a step further: they’re already praising Bryant for weathering the storm of public opinion so well (“legal issues aside”). A little more suggested reading is that same paper’s case against irresponsible cyclists, which is built around this slim but hard-hitting paragraph:

Though Toronto woman Misty Bailey tried to stop boyfriend Darcy Allan Sheppard from riding his bike after drinking before he died in a crash involving former Ontario attorney-general Michael Bryant this week, many don’t consider trying to stop an inebriated friend from biking home.

Meanwhile, Ontario has been unable to issue new driver’s licences for about two weeks because of a strike at DriveTest, the private firm that handles all road tests for the province. However, the two sides have just agreed to sit down at the table once again in hopes of getting back to work. If there are really four thousand people per day waiting for the strike to end so they can earn or renew their driving privileges, one can only hope the labour dispute is patched up before they resort to dangerous recreational alternatives, like cycling.
Saad Khalid, a former U of T business student, was sentenced to fourteen years in prison yesterday for his role in planning a bombing in Toronto in 2006. Khalid gets seven years’ credit for time served before his conviction and is eligible for parole in twenty-eight months. He is, reportedly, “perfectly happy” with the sentence, according to his lawyer—though that may not be an exact quote.
And there’s a lot of noise being made because of one stray plane. No, we don’t mean those planes, but the Porter Airlines plane that defied rerouting orders and landed on Toronto Island “late” one night (11 p.m. is after the airport’s bedtime). The Toronto Port Authority found an elegant way to keep this sensitive subject from being raised at their meetings: “revise” their records down to almost nothing. If fixing problems were as simple as editing a Word file, we’d probably be out of business—sorry for the bad-news Friday; we now return you to your regularly wonderful city.

CORRECTIONS: SEPTEMBER 4, 2009 This article originally misidentified a Porter Airlines plane as a jet, when Porter flies turboprop aircraft; mistakenly said that “Ontario has been unable to issue or renew driver’s licences” when in fact only licenses that require testing are affected; and described the Michael Bryant–Darcy Allan Sheppard incident as a “hit and run accident” when both those terms are contentious.

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  • http://undefined canashian

    A correction: this incident was not a “hit-and-run”, since Bryant stayed on the scene afterward. However, you can’t call it an “accident” either, since both parties knew what they were doing.
    What term should we use?

  • http://www.torontoist.com David Topping

    Bryant didn’t stay on the exact scene of the accident; he drove up the street, turned, parked, and called police. For the sake of clarity though, I’ve removed both terms from the opening paragraph.

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    afaik that is leaving a scene. I once witnessed an accident right in front of my office. I went upstairs to tell my boss I’d be a few minutes late as I was an eye-witness. By the time I got back down the cop was pondering whether or not to charge ME with leaving the scene.

  • http://undefined davedave

    Fair trial? Come the hell on.
    Yeah, this story wasn’t news anywhere else but here.
    There is no such thing as a pure and unbiased trial. People read the news. They know things about the case. That’s just the way it is.
    It doesn’t matter whether jurors see evidence in the news beforehand or see it for the first time in the courtroom – they evaluate it and make a decision. There really is no such thing as having a preconceived notion. It’s just different timing.
    And it most definitely was hit and run. Turning onto another street and pulling into a hotel is not staying on the scene. Stopping your car where the crushed person is lying on the street and giving aid to him. That is staying on the scene.

  • http://undefined Ari Goldbergenstien

    I think it’s a shame that a productive member of society my have his life destroyed because of a sleazebag like Darcy Allan Sheppard. These charges are ridiculous and should be dropped.
    I’m also bewildered by the fact that Toronto’s cyclists decided to stage a Tamil style protest to turn the city against them. Like the Tamils, they don’t care if everyone hates them, they just wanted to generate as much media attention as possible. Although, I suppose the best way to memorialize a cyclist is to piss off as many drivers as possible. I didn’t think I could possible hate cyclists anymore than I did before this incident, but I’ve developed a new level of contempt for these self-righteous jerks.

  • http://undefined davedave

    Bryant’s resume is IRRELEVANT.
    Unless, of course, you think there are laws that apply to a “productive member of society” and other laws that apply to everyone else. Which, is, of course, a moronic position to hold.
    What would you be saying if it was a lowly cab driver who ran over Sheppard?

  • Threnody

    Porter doesn’t fly jets.

  • http://undefined Vincent Clement

    Ontario has been unable to issue or renew driver’s licences for about two weeks because of a strike at DriveTest
    That statement is incorrect.
    The Province is unable to issue or renew a driver’s licence if you require a test prior to issuance or renewal.
    If you don’t need a test, you may renew your licence at a Driver and Vehicle Licence Issuing Office, of if you don’t need a new picture at a Service Ontario Kiosk or by mail.

  • http://undefined Vincent Clement

    Me thinks the police officer was messing with you.

  • http://undefined Vincent Clement

    With one person dead and various accounts of the incident, this turns into a he said she said situation. Bryant’s resume is most definitely relevant.

  • http://www.torontoist.com David Topping

    You are correct; mistake corrected.

  • http://www.torontoist.com David Topping

    …And you are also correct. Mistake corrected.

  • http://undefined davedave

    Not exactly he said she said when one of them is dead.
    While the video footage is irrefutable, the only account of the actual words that were exchanged among Bryant, Bryant’s wife and Sheppard can come from Bryant and his wife. Unless there are some witnesses on the sidewalk who can contribute more.
    Bryant’s career and freedom are at stake and the main person who can refute his side of the story is dead. So spare me the halo you’ve placed around Bryant’s head. Hell, if I were him I would be cooking up some half truths too because I know I could get away with it.

  • http://undefined james a

    If you actually read the article, you’ll see it has nothing to do with finding jurors who haven’t heard about the case, and more to do with selecting judges and lawyers, many of who (around here) will already know mr. Bryant personally given his former line of work.

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    well according to her, I shouldn’t have left period. It is possible she was saying something out of line (not a surprise with cops) but she seemed to know what she was talking about.

  • http://undefined davedave

    I assumed it was a given that there would be challenges to finding people without a prior work relationship with Bryant.
    But the next step is for Bryant’s lawyers to shriek about the media making people biased against him.

  • http://undefined McKingford

    “Hit & Run”
    Look, by no means am I a Bryant apologist: I did, and continue to, decry the very favourable treatment he got whereby he was released by the police without being subjected to a bail hearing. And while I am agnostic on whether he committed a crime, I am certain that what he did was morally wrong (and I also believe that but for the absence of bike lanes on Bloor this would not have happened).
    But…
    There is no rational way that this was a “hit and run”. There is no dispute that Bryant stopped his car within walking distance of the “accident” (the legal word) and called 911. Both in layman and legal terms, the term “hit and run” has long been understood to mean leaving the scene of an accident with the intent of escaping civil or criminal liability. (see s. 252(1) of the Criminal Code). And that is simply not what happened here.

  • http://rantspectacle.blogspot.com/ mccool

    Thanks for being part of the problem!

  • http://undefined Vincent Clement

    Spare me your hyperbole. I didn’t put any halo around Bryant’s head. I just said that his resume is relevant. I didn’t say that is right or wrong, just relevant.
    The Crown Attorney will be the voice of the deceased and one of their jobs, if there is enough evidence to proceed with the case, will be to paint Bryant with as big a negative paintbrush as they can. All this negative information about Sheppard is not going to help their case.