Complaint launched against Mayor John Tory for tweets on bail ruling in police officer's murder case

Toronto Mayor John Tory is defending a series of tweets in which he described a judge's decision to release the man charged in the death of a plainclothes police constable earlier this year as "questionable," after a complaint filed against him at the Ontario Civilian Police Commission.

On Monday, the Law Union of Ontario's policing committee announced it had filed a complaint with the quasi-judicial oversight agency over Tory's comments on the decision by Superior Court Justice Jill Copeland to grant bail to Umar Zameer.

Zameer, 31, is accused of intentionally running over Toronto police Const. Jeffrey Northrup in a city hall parking garage in July. Little can be reported about the case because of a publication ban covering the evidence presented at Zameer's bail hearing in September as well as the judge's reasons for releasing him.

Though Copeland's reasons for releasing Zameer had not been made public, Tory along with Premier Doug Ford and Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown issued statements criticizing the move. Tory tweeted it was a "questionable decision," saying it was "almost impossible to imagine a circumstance in which an accused in a case of first-degree murder would be granted bail."

At a recent hearing where Zameer's lawyer asked to loosen the publication ban, Copeland pointed to a 1988 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada describing public commentary by politicians on ongoing cases as "reckless."

Yet in a statement to CBC News on Tuesday, a spokesperson from Tory's office said the mayor stood by his comments.

"Mayor Tory was expressing his personal opinion as an elected official on serious public matters — as he is expected to do on a daily basis. He continues to believe — as he has for many years — that when someone on a serious criminal charge is granted bail, the reasons for that bail should not be covered by a publication ban," said Lawvin Hadisi.

"As he has said many times, the mayor truly believes the present workings of the bail system are eroding public confidence in the justice system."

But given that Tory sits on the Toronto Police Services Board, the law union alleges the mayor's conduct violated the board's code of conduct under the Police Service Act, arguing the mayor's conduct "demonstrated a failure to exercise the 'utmost circumspection and prudence'" required of board members. 

The union points out previous decisions by the commission have held that the code of conduct applies even when members purport to be speaking in other capacities such as mayor or taxpayer. Ultimately, the union asks for the commission to investigate and hold a hearing into Tory's conduct as a member of the board.

When Tory, Ford and Brown "are openly criticizing a judge, citing a judgment which followed an evidentiary hearing... because of the ban on the publication of evidence, none of these three know what the evidence is," Howard Morton of the Law Union of Ontario told CBC News. 

"For them to go off half-cocked with their criticism can jeopardize the accused's right to a fair trial," Morton said. 

Following the decision, Ford tweeted: "This is beyond comprehension. It's completely unacceptable that the person responsible for this heinous crime is now out on bail. Our justice system needs to get its act together and start putting victims and their families ahead of criminals."

The tweet was later deleted and reposted with the words "responsible for" swapped for "charged with."