Calls for judge in Umar Zameer case to apologize are 'inappropriate and unethical': chief justice
CBC
Calls for the judge in the Umar Zameer case to apologize for suggesting three Toronto police officers colluded and lied in the high-profile criminal trial are "unethical" and "inappropriate," Geoffrey Morawetz, the chief justice of the Ontario Superior Court, said Thursday.
"When judges or juries make decisions at the end of a trial, they are final, subject to a party's right to appeal," Morawetz wrote in a statement.
"It would be inappropriate and unethical for judges to succumb to outside pressure to modify or qualify their decisions or reasons."
The judge in Zameer's trial — Justice Anne Molloy — was called on to apologize to the officers by Premier Doug Ford Wednesday and Toronto Police Association (TPA) president Clayton Campbell Tuesday.
The comments from the TPA and Ford came in the aftermath of a report from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) that found the officers involved in the investigation into the 2021 death of Det. Const. Jeffrey Northrup did not lie or collude in their testimony during the 2024 trial.
The report, which was requested by Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw, comes years after Northrup was struck and killed by a vehicle driven by Zameer in an underground parking garage at Toronto City Hall on July 1, 2021.
It also raised “significant concerns” with collision theories posed by two separate expert witnesses in Zameer’s trial, including a Toronto police officer, which were ultimately accepted by both the jury and the trial's judge.
Zameer's lawyer, Nader Hasan, said at a news conference Thursday that the OPP and Toronto Police Service must publicly release the "purported" accident reconstruction report to restore faith in those police agencies.
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