Ontario Workplace Safety Board Rules In Favour Of Policeman's Family For PTSD

[Bruce Monkhouse]

http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/mark_bonokoski/2009/01/25/8139281-sun.html
Peace, justice at last
WSIB decision clears cop's name

By MARK BONOKOSKI
Last Updated: 25th January 2009, 7:18am

On an October day back in 2005, nine days before his 58th birthday, Eddie Adamson, son of former Toronto Police Chief Harold Adamson, went to a motel in Simcoe County and took his own life -- his room reportedly littered with his police notebooks of the day that changed his life forever, and the newspaper clippings of that day's horrors.

While it was definitely a gun that ended Eddie Adamson's nightmares, what loaded that bullet into its chamber was the cumulative impact of what happened on March 14, 1980 -- the day Toronto Const. Michael Sweet, a father of three young girls, was shot, held hostage, and allowed to bleed to death by the notorious Munro brothers during a botched robbery of George's Bourbon St. bistro at 180 Queen St. W.
Sgt. Ed Adamson headed up the Emergency Task Force on that day. He wanted to storm the restaurant, knowing that Sweet had been shot and was in critical condition.
But he was ordered to stand down.

And obeying that order -- after arduously arguing against it -- haunted him to his grave.
By the time Adamson was given the good-to-go, and he stormed into the tear-gas soaked pizza joint with Gary Leuin of the ETF, and Barry Doyle of 52 Division, bullets flying everywhere, Michael Sweet had already slipped away.

But there was Adamson, so overcome by the tear gas that he eventually had to be hospitalized, but trying nonetheless to give mouth-to-mouth rescue to a fellow officer who was already lying dead on the kitchen floor.
The imagery is overwhelming.

Now, after years of fighting the system for closure through truth, Eddie Adamson's family has finally been told by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) that it had finally accepted the true cause of Adamson's death.
And it was not suicide.
It was post traumatic stress disorder.

"What we did in pursuing the WSIB was not just for us. It was more to help the widows and widowers of other police officers who may one day take their own life," said Eddie Adamson's daughter, a detective on another police force. "And it was for my father's good name.
"What happened to his life is just tragic."
OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino was a Toronto homicide cop back then, and at the scene when the drama unfolded, and Craig and Jamie Munro somehow lived through the assault after taking in a hail of gunfire.

Jamie Munro, in fact, has three-quarters of his stomach blown away, yet today he still lives and breathes.
As Fantino wrote in his book, Duty, The Life of a Cop, "Why they would live and Michael Sweet would die, I will never know. It's a question I've asked myself a thousand times."
It is a question, however, that Eddie Adamson had the answer to, and it was an answer that destroyed him.

"Eddie always felt that if he had not followed that order, Michael Sweet would be alive today," says Fantino.
"And he carried that to his grave."
Reached at his office in Orillia, Fantino said he supported the Adamson family's application to the WSIB -- the reasoning behind its recent decision protected by privacy law, said a WSIB spokesman, and therefore not open for comment.
The reasoning, however, is obvious to those who were there that day, and to those who knew Eddie Adamson.

"You must remember, Eddie Adamson was a very brave man," says Fantino. "But he deteriorated greatly following that incident. It was a pivotal point in his life -- that 'what if?'
"It nagged him. It consumed him."
Edward William John Adamson "retired" from the Toronto Police Force on Jan. 31, 1994 after 26 years and seven months of service, and 14 years of post traumatic hell.
He had "just burned out," says Art Lymer, former president of the old Metro Toronto Police Association.

It was Lymer, in fact, who assisted in initiating the process -- way back in 1993 -- of helping Eddie Adamson or convince what was then the Workers' Compensation Board that his "burn out" was not just some figment of his imagination, but a direct and clinical result of what happened (and didn't happen) at George's Bourbon St.
It had truly broken Adamson's psyche.
From that day onward, Adamson was never the same and, eventually, the solace of a drink was never far away.

"I had a lot of time for Eddie Adamson," says Fantino. "But, no matter how many times I saw him, no matter how many times we talked of other things, that day would always come up in our conversations.
"He could never put closure to it."
To this day, even Adamson's family cannot shake the Munro brothers and, as a result, Adamson's daughter, for one, does not want her name published.
While Craig Munro, the 56-year-old triggerman, is still in prison serving life for first-degree murder, his younger brother, Jamie, got parole and slipped off to Italy in 1994 under an assumed name, and is today vying for his unwanted return.

"These individuals have been a threat to my family since that night and, of course, I will always have concerns for my family's safety," the daughter says.
Eddie Adamson's widow, Linda, meanwhile, requested that former police union president Art Lymer speak on her behalf.
"I'm just not up to it," she says.

According to Lymer, the WSIB's decision will produce merely a "minor adjustment" in the spousal pension.
"But that is not the reason we fought for this. It is not the reason it was done. The money is insignificant," says Lymer.
"It was done to clear Eddie Adamson's name, and that mission has now been accomplished.
"Finally he can be at peace with himself.

"It's justice at last."


Amen, RIP Sgt.Adamson

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Honour for cop overdue
Trauma ultimately took his life

By MARK BONOKOSKI
Last Updated: 15th February 2009, 3:18am

"We offer our profound gratitude and respect to those officers who paid life's highest price to fulfil the Service's motto, To Serve and Protect."

-- Toronto Police Honour Roll

Perhaps the time has finally come to add one long-overdue name to the 38 Toronto Police officers already on that honour roll -- that of the late Sgt. Edward Adamson.

And, come May, to add his name to the Ontario Police Memorial on Toronto's Queen's Park Crescent.
And then, come September, to the Canadian Police and Peace Officer's Memorial in Ottawa.
His penance in his own private purgatory should be over.

As reported here two Sundays ago, back in October 2005, nine days before his 58th birthday, Eddie Adamson, son of former Metro Toronto police chief Harold Adamson, went to a motel in Simcoe County and took his own life -- his room reportedly littered with his police notebooks from the day that incalculably changed his life forever, and with the newspaper clippings that documented that day's horrific events.

While it was no doubt a gun that ended Eddie Adamson's life, what loaded that weapon was the cumulative gravitas of what happened on March 14, 1980 -- the day Toronto Const. Michael Sweet, a father of three young girls, was shot, held hostage, and allowed to bleed out by the infamous Munro brothers during a fumbled robbery of George's Bourbon St. bistro at 180 Queen St. W.

Sgt. Ed Adamson headed up the Emergency Task Force on that day. He wanted to storm the restaurant, knowing Sweet had been wounded and was likely on death's door.
But he was ordered to stand down.
And obeying that order haunted him to his grave.
This can no longer be denied.

As was outlined here, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board finally caught up with the 21st century by ruling a few weeks ago that Eddie Adamson's death was not simply brought on by a bullet from a gun but from post traumatic stress disorder triggered by the guilt he felt each day for the last years of his life for not disobeying the order to stand down and, instead, storming the bistro to save 30-year-old Michael Sweet's life.

By the time Adamson was given the good-to-go order, and led the assault on the restaurant with Gary Leuin of the ETF, and Barry Doyle of 52 Division, the sound of gunshots filling the air, Michael Sweet had already slipped away.

But there was Adamson, nonetheless, so overcome by the tear gas that he eventually had to be hospitalized, trying to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a fellow officer who was already lying dead because they had gotten there too late.

It was a horror he could never shake.
Old-school terminology wrote him off as suffering from "burnout" or "battle fatigue," and promoted the fallacy that it could be shaken off if one's mind were put to it.

But, this time, WSIB appeals adjudicator Mark Evans ruled definitively that Eddie Adamson "suffered an acute post-traumatic reaction" from being too late to save Const. Michael Sweet's young life because of that "stand down" order being obeyed and that, from that day onward, the slippery slope to his suicide was medically understandable, clinically explainable, and therefore virtually predictable.

According to Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash, however, "the rules defining the (Toronto Police) honour roll are that you must have died in the line of duty and, at this point, that's where we stand."

There are exceptions to rules, of course, and it could be argued Eddie Adamson did die in the line of duty because, for all intent and purpose, the life he knew died on that day in March 1980 along with Michael Sweet.
It just took 25 years for his heart to stop beating.

Staff-Sgt. Don Sweet, Michael Sweet's nephew, is on the robbery squad at Ottawa Police Services, as well as on the board of directors of the national Canadian Police and Peace Officer's Memorial.
And he would like to see Eddie Adamson's name added to the list of almost 700 Canadian officers whose lives have been lost ... "They are our heroes. We shall not forget them."

Every year for the last 17, in fact, Staff-Sgt. Sweet has been master of ceremonies at the annual national tribute, held on the last Sunday in September, his first experience being the reading of a prayer for his fallen uncle.

"Seeing Eddie Adamson's name on the memorial would be good for the Adamson family and good for the Sweet family," he says. "In the end, it would see some good coming out of all of this."

Early last week, the Sun has learned, Toronto Police Association president Dave Wilson submitted the necessary letter, complete with all the WSIB documentation, to the appropriate committees that oversee all three honour rolls.

"Eddie Adamson deserves to be recognized, and given the proper homage," Wilson says, noting that most officers on the force, even if it happened before their time, are well aware of "the historic significance" of that day when Michael Sweet died and Eddie Adamson was ordered to stand down.

"We also now know so much more about post-traumatic stress than we did years ago, and so much more about what it can do to good people," he says.
"The WSIB decision regarding Eddie Adamson is cutting edge. Back in the day, (police officers) were simply told to suck it up, and get on with it.
"If only it were that easy," Wilson says.

"But it isn't."

 

[mariomike]

WSIB now recognises the "Cummulative Effect" of trauma on ambulance crews, even though it is part of the job.
A final "reaction" is considered to be the cumulative effect.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

I'll give him his friggin' "freedom".

Minimum security, kiss my a@&.


http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/mark_bonokoski/2009/02/22/8481611-sun.html
Prison break
T.O. cop killer makes bid for freedom 29 years after murdering Const. Michael Sweet

By MARK BONOKOSKI

Last Updated: 22nd February 2009, 3:30am

On Thursday morning, inside the minimum-security Kwikwexwelhp Healing Village near Mission, B.C., notorious Toronto cop killer Craig Munro will stand before a parole tribunal for the very first time.
Despite being in prison a few days shy of 29 years, and despite having applied for parole hearings in the past, he has always abandoned his applications in mid-stream -- the last in 1997 when he walked away from his "faint hope" parole attempt after a Toronto Sun story threw so much light on the case that Munro, through his lawyer, said it would have been impossible for him to get a fair hearing.

No decisions or documents from the National Parole Board therefore exist.
This week, however, the now 58-year-old Munro hopes to finally get his get-out-of-jail papers, somewhere along the way having purportedly been converted by the teachings and traditions of the Red Road, the generic term for the First Nations' religious guide to living a principled life.

At his hearing Thursday, according to National Parole Board spokesman Patrick Storey, Munro will be entitled to have his own native elder from the prison as counsel during the hearing which will be conducted in a circle formation, much like traditional First Nations sentencing circles.
The parole board tribunal will also have an elder present to provide guidance and insight.

The hearing will begin with either a ceremonial smudging of sweetgrass and/or a First Nations prayer.
Kwikwexwelhp (pronounced Kwee-kwee-kwelp) is a 50-bed minimum-security correctional facility formerly known as the Elbow Lake Institution, and is located in a remote mountain setting 37 kms east of Mission, B.C.

Driving directions provided by the NPB are two pages in length, with dire warnings that the long dirt road leading to Kwikwexwelhp is "very narrow, winding and steep." "Watch for ruts and potholes and use caution at all times of the year," reads the directive.
While Kwikwexwelhp is an aboriginal-focused facility, with an emphasis on spiritual and cultural teachings, non-aboriginal inmates are not exempt.

"It is available for any offender who wants to access the programs that are available there," said correctional services spokesman Dave Lefebvre. "While it is an aboriginal healing village, any offender of any race is allowed to participate." Back in March 1980, the drug-addicted Munro, along with his younger brother, James (Jamie) Munro, shot Metro Toronto Const. Michael Sweet, a 30-year-old father of three young girls, during the botched robbery of George's Bourbon St. Bistro on Queen St. W. -- allowing Sweet to bleed to death during a controversial 90-minute standoff with Toronto's Emergency Task Force that reverberates to this day, and during which time the elder Munro was allowed by senior police negotiators to fetch the cache of heroin that he had stashed in his car.

A year later, Craig Munro was found guilty by a jury of first-degree murder and sentenced to the automatic term of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years.
His younger brother, convicted of second-degree murder, was paroled in March, 1992, and high-tailed it to Italy following his release where he has been living ever since under the name of Massimo Marra.

The coincidental timing of Craig Munro's first real attempt at parole, however, could not have been more stinging.
As reported exclusively here last Sunday, the Toronto Police Association recently submitted the necessary paperwork to have the name of the late Sgt. Eddie Adamson added to three honour rolls paying homage to police officers who have died in the line of duty -- the Toronto Police Honour Roll, the Ontario Police Memorial on Toronto's Queen's Park Crescent and, come September, to the Canadian Police and Peace Officer's Memorial in Ottawa.

While there is no question that Adamson, son of the late Metro Toronto Police Chief Harold Adamson, took his own life back in 2005, there is also no question that the bullet that ended it was loaded into his gun by the complexities triggered by the events the Munro brothers launched back in March, 1980, when, as head of the ETF unit at the scene, Adamson reluctantly obeyed a staff inspector's order to "stand down," and not storm the Bourbon St. Bistro, knowing full well that Michael Sweet's life was likely ebbing away.

As was outlined here, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board finally caught up with the 21st century by ruling a few weeks ago that Eddie Adamson's death was indeed brought on by post traumatic stress disorder, the cumulative effect of the guilt he felt each day for the last 25 years of his life for not disobeying the order and instead storming the bistro to save Michael Sweet's life.

It was Adamson, after all, who could hear Craig Munro through the restaurant's walls -- hear him taunting Michael Sweet about his wounds, about his wife and his kids, and about how he would never see them again.
By the time Adamson was given the good-to-go order, however, and led the commando-style assault on the restaurant with Gary Lewin of the ETF, and Barry Doyle of 52 Division, the sound of gunshots filling the basement, Michael Sweet was gone.

But there was Adamson, overcome by the teargas yet trying nonetheless to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a fellow officer who was already all but officially dead.
It was an image he would take to his grave.

Old-school psychology wrote Adamson off as suffering from "burn out" or "battle fatigue," and promoted the fallacy that it could be shaken off if one's mind were put to it.
But WSIB appeals adjudicator Mark Evans has now ruled definitively that Eddie Adamson "suffered an acute post-traumatic reaction" from being too late to save Const. Michael Sweet because of that "stand-down" order being obeyed and that, from that day onward, the slide towards his eventual suicide was medically understandable, clinically explainable, and therefore virtually predictable.

And now, four days from today, Michael Sweet's killer, and Eddie Adamson's emotional millstone, will be asking for a pass out of the prison system.
While the National Parole Board will not state who will be speaking against Munro's parole, it is known for certain that OPP commissioner and former Toronto Police chief, Julian Fantino -- on the scene as a member of the Toronto homicide squad at the time of Sweet's death, has written a letter arguing against Munro's release.

And so, too, has Eddie Adamson's daughter, a detective on another police force who still fears for her family's safety so much that she asked that her name, and the name of her police force, not be published.
Linda Adamson, Eddie Adamson's widow, has also prepared a victim-impact statement to be read at Munro's hearing, but said she has difficulty remembering her exact words, so agonizing was the ordeal.
"I worked on it for two weeks, and for two weeks I never slept," she confessed.

While none of the above will be attending Munro's parole hearing, police union president Dave Wilson, along with association vice-president, Doug Corrigan, will be going to Kwikwexwelhp, as will a representative from the force itself, Staff-Supt. Glenn DeCaire.

And so, too, will Michael Sweet's widow, Karen, who will reportedly speak directly to the parole tribunal.
While Wilson et al cannot give oral presentations, they can -- and will -- submit written presentation arguing for Munro's continued imprisonment.
"We will also be there as moral support for the Sweet family," said Wilson.
"When officers' lives are lost, we have to hold the system accountable.
"It's important to the community at large, important to the police community, and important to the Sweet family.
"The Munro brothers -- and Craig Munro (in particular) -- must be held accountable for their actions."

News photographs taken at the time of Michael Sweet's murder are graphic, but none, of course, were taken inside the teargassed, dimly lit basement of the Bourbon St. Bistro where the young constable, his annual pay tabbed back then at $21,782, was dying from two gunshot wounds to the chest.
Instead, there were photographs of the bloodied Munro brothers -- Craig Munro being hauled from a police cruiser at the hospital, and his brother, Jamie, being loaded onto a stretcher by uniformed police, his body riddled with 14 pieces of assorted shrapnel from ricocheting bullets and debris.

A year later, long after the gunfire ended and the ETF assault was over, court would be told that Craig Munro remembered very little of the hours that changed so many lives -- the contention being that the combination of heroin snorted, and looted restaurant booze drank, while watching Michael Sweet die, had blacked out his memory.

GUNSHOT WOUND

The injuries Craig Munro suffered, however, amounted to little more than a gunshot wound to the hand.
Const. Michael Sweet, meanwhile, was buried on March 18, 1980, following a funeral service at Precious Blood Roman Catholic Church on Lawrence Ave. E., the oldest of his three daughters only six years old, the youngest 18 months.

Twenty-five-plus years later, on Oct. 12, 2005, chapel services were held for Edward Adamson, the 58-year-old grandfather of a then 8-year-old boy, at the McDougall and Brown Funeral Home on Kingston Rd.
His death notice simply said that he had "passed away."

Fast forward now to Dec. 3 of this year, and Craig Alfred Munro, killer of Michael Sweet and surrogate killer of Eddie Adamson, will be celebrating his 59th birthday, if the creator wills it -- possibly having already walked out of Kwikwexwelhp on a day four days from today, and down the Red Road to a conditional freedom.

MARK.BONOKOSKI@SUNMEDIA.CA OR 416-947-2445

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

and hopefully the victims family, friends, and colleages get treated better than this.

http://www.ucco-sacc.csn.qc.ca/pregenerate/cmsFrameContent_EN_RegionsPacific_N0805N703242J0907PM.html?Lang=EN&ParentID=RegionsPacific&H=800&V=600&SectionID=N0805N703242J0907PM

So where does CSC put the concerns, is it on the offenders, native tradition, where?

Recently there as a parole hearing held at the healing village, they actually hold them in the lodge, it is a large building with a dirt floor, and the only heat is two medium sized air tight stoves, and it takes hours to get the dampness and chill out of the room. 

There were four to five victims attending this hearing, they traveled a very long distance at their own expense and were not told of the conditions of where the parole hearing was going to be held, as some were wearing shirts and shoes. The staff member who escorted them to the lodge, assisted in their seating in the parole hearing.  The lodge was cold and chilly, so the officer called up to the institutional kitchen to see if someone could bring down some coffee for them to warm them up, as they were chilled to the bone.  And to the officer s amazement was told that the institution does not have a budget for supplying coffee for these hearings.

So the officer called the duty office, as there is a coffee fund all officers chip in for, and the local union donated a pound of coffee and cream while another officer arranged to get them cups.

How embarrassing for them it must have been, as some of them came dressed very nicely expecting to be seated in at least a warm room and to be treated like this, the duty office staff, apologized and did whatever they could to make them comfortable.

Just goes to show you that management’s priorities are not where they should be, and that is on the public/victims.  It is sad that they will leave, thinking god knows what, but they will remember that at least the officers were caring enough to make them comfortable.

 

[geo]

How pathetic can this get ???
Not even a lousy cup of coffee for the victims who chose to attend.

Shame on you CSC, SHAME ON YOU!

 

[mariomike]

In 1962 one of our Metro policemen was shot on the Danforth. He was conscious in the ambulance and died after arrival at East General Hospital. His murderer was hanged in the old Don ( not far from the crime scene ) by Christmas of that same year.
He, and the man hanged back to back with him, were the last to hang in Canada.
Whatever your opinion is on capital punishment, it shows how times have changed.

 

[geo]

I think that there has to be the hope of rehabilitation somewhere in the criminal justice system BUT having said that.... I do think that there is a need to face reality at times - confirm that the individual is a hopeless case & the government should cut it's losses.

 

[chris_log]

I think that there has to be the hope of rehabilitation somewhere in the criminal justice system BUT having said that.... I do think that there is a need to face reality at times - confirm that the individual is a hopeless case & the government should cut it's losses.

Especially in this case, as the younger brother broke his parole and ran off to Italy we can't expect much better from this one.

'Native Healing Lodges' my foot. I had to sit through a semester in a class that went on and on about the benefits of this dribble. Every single offender in there (including white prisoners who are 1/1000 native and somehow manage to weasle into these FAR for comfortable facilities) only finds the 'path to healing' for as long as they need to so they can get paroled. Big whoop, smudge some charcole on your face and suddenly you're a better person?  :

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Thanks to the media for keeping this jerk-off behind bars, because if this had been the normal [except for victims, of course], run of the mill type parole hearing, that did not hit the papers, Munro would be out on the street and maybe living next to you...............

Friday, February 27, 2009
Cop killer denied parole

By MARK BONOKOSKI
Last Updated: 27th February 2009, 3:42am

On a day when the justice system suffered a gut shot as two alleged killers in Toronto walked out of jail as free men following the collapse of the Crown's case, notorious Toronto cop-killer Craig Munro was denied parole hours later out west for a murder that still haunts an entire police force.

For Craig Munro, who has already spent 29 years in prison, the last few spent in the minimum-security Kwikwexwelhp Healing Village near Mission, B.C., it means the National Parole Board did not buy into this non-native killer's purported conversion to the tenets of the Red Road, the First Nations' path of a principled life.
What they saw, instead, was a cold-blooded murderer who, if future parole bids keep being denied, could end up dying behind bars since there is no mandatory release date for convicted first-degree killers.

Life imprisonment can mean just that -- life in prison. To OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino, who was a Toronto homicide detective back in March 1980, and who used Munro's murder of the young Toronto constable as an emotional focal point for his recent biography -- Duty: Life of a Cop -- the killer's conversion to aboriginal traditions in an attempt to sway the national parole board was laughable.
"The whole thing is a joke," said Fantino. "The guy was doing nothing more than playing the system.
"Really? Finding Indian spirituality in the 11th hour?
"Give me a break," he said.

Back in March 1980, the drug-addicted Munro, along with his younger brother, James (Jamie) Munro, shot Metro Toronto Const. Michael Sweet, a 30-year-old father of three young girls, during the botched robbery of George's Bourbon St. Bistro on Queen St. W. -- the two allowing Sweet to bleed out during a controversial 90-minute standoff with Toronto's Emergency Task Force.

A year later, Craig Munro was found guilty by a jury of first-degree murder and sentenced to the automatic term of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years.
His younger brother, convicted of second-degree murder, was paroled in March 1992, and allowed to move to Italy following his release where he has been living ever since under the name of Massimo Marra.

Despite being in prison a few days shy of 29 years, the now-58-year-old Craig Munro applied only once for parole considerations -- that one time being back in 1997 when he made a "faint hope" parole attempt, only to abandon the application after a Toronto Sun story threw so much publicity on the case that Munro, through his lawyer, said it would have been impossible for him to get a fair hearing.

This, therefore, was the heartless cop-killer's first realistic chance at freedom, having served four years past the minimum time before being eligible for parole.
And he was heartless.

Remembered by every cop who has heard the story, and remembered particularly by the late Sgt. Eddie Adamson, then in charge of the ETF unit at the scene, and who heard every word, Munro showed no mercy for the dying officer.
Through the walls of the Bourbon St. Bistro, Munro could be heard mentally torturing young Michael Sweet -- taunting him about his wounds, about his wife and his kids, and about how he would never see them again.

According to National Parole Board spokesman Patrick Storey, who attended the hearing at the medium-security Mountain Institution -- bad weather keeping it from being held at Kwikwexwelhp 35 km to the west -- there were 17 observers at the hearing.
As was written here last Sunday, some of those observers included Toronto Police Association president Dave Wilson, along with union vice-president Doug Corrigan, as well as a representative from the force itself, reportedly Staff-Supt. Glenn DeCaire.
While Patrick Storey said he was not privy to give names, it is believed that Michael Sweet's widow, Karen, gave a verbal victim-impact statement to the parole tribunal.

PRESENTATIONS

Wilson, along with the Toronto force's rep, could not give oral presentations, but were allowed to submit written presentations arguing for Munro's continued imprisonment. So, too, did OPP Commissioner Fantino.
As Fantino put it upon hearing the news, "those who care about what happened that day can breathe a brief sigh of relief.
"Craig Munro still presents a threat," he said, "and the parole board accurately saw the risk he poses."

According to police union boss Dave Wilson, who was reached as he was leaving the hearing, the parole board "saw right through Munro -- particularly when he tried to minimize his role in (Michael Sweet's) murder, and place blame on the police for how they handled the situation.
"The man is still a credible risk, and the board knew it," said Wilson. "And they kept him where he belongs."
Thanks to a recent federal court ruling, however, Craig Munro can reapply for parole within six months.

And every six months after that.

MARK.BONOKOSKI@SUNMEDIA.CA OR 416-947-2445

 

[Zer0]

I'm sorry but I can't stand to hear the simple one-sided opinion of the subject. Remember that Craig Munro has spent 29 years behind bars, which can make significant changes to a person, and is not 1/1000 Aboriginal he is actually 1/8. Also to properly inform it wasn't a last minute decision made by anyone it was never an opportunity presented to him until moving to BC.

I think it is safe to say that perhaps Craig Munro has decided to discover another spiritual side, might I also mention that he had become religious over 15+ years ago (not a "last minute" attempt at parole).

I think it is important to state that I do not condone his actions and I am no supporter in any way of murdering police officers, what I am saying is that perhaps some people, yes even Craig Munro have had justice laid upon them and deserve a second chance.

 

[Zer0]

and to clarify another comment made, Jamie Munro didn't just "break parole and run off to Italy", it is a little more detailed than that, but to keep it short he was cut a deal by the judicial system and perhaps wanted to start life again. Lastly Massimo Marra lives in peace with his wife and two children to this day and has since 1992.

 

[J.J]

Zero,
I am going to make an assumption about your comments....

You have close personal ties to those cold blooded killers and you feel the need to defend and protect their horrendous act. I can understand you wanting to protect them, but taunting a dieing man that he will not see his wife and children is beyond reprehensible.
I am not a strong supporter of the death penalty as there is always mistakes, but in this situation I would have participated in the execution of those scumbags!
I am glad "Massimo" is now a problem for Italy and not Canada. People like that never change.
Get a reality check...

 

[Zer0]

There are also assumptions that can be made about yourself but instead let me congratulate you on your two seconds of spotlight...

I simply wanted to clarify certain points made in this forum and perhaps give a "reality check" rather than get one. I did not have the intention of starting any hate posts, but this is however a forum. In no way do I mean to protect anyone or deny their actions, I strongly believe that both Jamie and Craig got what they deserved and if you or anyone else says that they deserve the death penalty then you are disrespecting our Canadian laws and values. It's because of our laws and regulations that separate Canada from the other pieces of *** countries in the world.

By the way I don't appreciate certain comments made against me for voicing my honest opinion, as you are entitled to your own.

Also "people like that" do change it is evident on some accounts.

 

[J.J]

Please expand about your assumptions on me?
Please enlighten us all on what you know about this case and these violent sociopathic men?
You are well spoken, but you seem not to have a lot of "worldly knowledge". There people in this world that have given up their right to live free by their actions and they should not walk among those that give back to society. Whether that is lifetime incarceration or the death penalty that is up to the state and the morals of society.
I gave you my opinion and I apologize if it goes against your liberal rose coloured view of society.
I am curious on what your relationship with the Munro brothers are?

 

[mariomike]

I'm old enough to remember when the murderers of Metro policemen, such as P.C. Sweet, were hanged at the Don Jail. Within the same calendar year that the murder occurred. It sent a strong message to the underworld that Toronto was tough on crime.

 

[Zer0]

I chose not to expand upon my assumptions as they might have been unfair (as were yours), which I am not. I find it amusing that you relate me to the brothers Munro and how you have coloured my views of society rose; I am simply a Pte. in the CF who knows a great deal on both sides of the subject (how is another matter), which is beside the point.

Again, the brothers got what they deserved, one was given a second chance and has become a better person rather than a problem. Perhaps the other who, by his own will, has served a longer sentence and had much time is a better person as well. Please let's keep this above the belt even if opinions are strong.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I chose not to expand upon my assumptions as they might have been unfair (as were yours), which I am not. I find it amusing that you relate me to the brothers Munro and how you have coloured my views of society rose; I am simply a Pte. in the CF who knows a great deal on both sides of the subject (how is another matter), which is beside the point.

Again, the brothers got what they deserved, one was given a second chance and has become a better person rather than a problem. Perhaps the other who, by his own will, has served a longer sentence and had much time is a better person as well. Please let's keep this above the belt even if opinions are strong.

Make all the opinions you want, but don't dare to come here and lecture or critisize whatever views others hold. Canadian laws? What about our democratic right and the majority rules then. I dare say that the vast majority of the people here would rather have seen the Munros hanged by the neck until they were dead. You're beating a dead horse if you think we believe in any sort of breaks for these cops killers. I think if you need to get anything off your chest and want any kind of self servig gratification that your kin are nice guys, Amnesty International might be a better spot for you to climb onto your self righteous podium.
May they both rot in hell.

 

[Zer0]

You're entitled to your opinion.

So basically what you're saying recce is that anyone can criticize my views but I can't voice my opinion, right? Seems a little hypocritical to me.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

You're entitled to your opinion.

So basically what you're saying recce is that anyone can criticize my views but I can't voice my opinion, right? Seems a little hypocritical to me.

Go ahead and voice them. Here they mean about as much as a fart in a windstorm. Most people play to the crowd they know. The majority here just don't agree with you and have no reason, therefore, to really listen to you. But hey, if it feeds your PC, namby pamby , everyone is entiled ego.......fill your boots. I see no reason to consort with the defenders of cold blooded murderers, and as such will leave you to your ramblings.

So far as sounding hyocritical, I really don't care, given your defence of the dregs of society, what you really think. We are not even remotely on the same wavelength.