Toronto police brutality trial ‘acid test’ for Special Investigations Unit

In the past two months, Ontario’s police watchdog has faced off with Toronto’s top cop over brutality allegations at the G20 summit, charged an officer in a shooting death for the first time in 13 years and garnered unprecedented attention.

On Monday, as court proceedings begin against the officer accused of roughing up a man at the G20 – a case certain to be one of the most closely watched in the Special Investigation Unit’s history – the agency will be called on to prove to the public that it is a robust watchdog and to police that it is a dispassionate, impartial investigator.

The SIU’s profile during the G20 was just the latest example of an organization that observers say has found renewed vigour since Ian Scott, a former Crown attorney, took over as director in the fall of 2008. The civilian oversight body had just been the subject of a scathing report by Ombudsman André Marin, himself a former director, who slammed the SIU for backing down in the face of police resistance to investigations and not doing enough to bring public awareness to its cases.

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