k***@gmail.com
2015-05-13 03:55:35 UTC
Xtra! (Toronto's Lesbian and Gay Biweekly)
2nd Floor, 491 Church Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
January 30, 1997
COURTS TO REVIEW PROJECT GUARDIAN
Have police discriminated against gay men?
Story by Joseph Couture
The tables have turned on Project Guardian -- and now it's the London police
who'll be on trial.
Defence lawyer David Corbett has successfully argued to a London judge that
one of his clients cannot be fairly tried without examining the way in which
police handled some of their investigations in the Project Guardian dragnet.
"In the exercise of their investigation and prosecutorial discretion, the
London Police Force has applied different standards and techniques to policing
alleged sexual offences involving juvenile males and juvenile females, based
on their belief that homosexuality is bad in and of itself, and that sexual
relationships between juvenile males and other males are bad and unnatural,"
Corbett told a judge during a December Ontario Court, General Division
hearing.
And Justice Peter Hockin ruled, in a decision signed Jan 10, that the court
should examine whether police have discriminated on the basis of sexual
orientation.
No date has yet been set for that hearing.
Lawyer Corbett calls the ruling precedent setting. It sends the message that
"police forces cannot exercise their discretion in a manner that discriminates
on the basis of sexual orientation."
But Corbett warns that activists should not expect too much of the review.
The main issue, he says, is the apparently selective application of the law
pertaining to under-aged prostitutes, and not to Project Guardian in its
entirety. Project Guardian, launched by the London Police, has resulted in
the arrest of more than 60 gay men. They have been branded as paedophiles,
but the majority have in fact been charged with paying someone under 18 for
sex. Most of the hustlers are over 14, the legal age of consent.
Corbett is representing a Toronto resident who is facing prostitution-related
charges involving young males.
---EOF
2nd Floor, 491 Church Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
January 30, 1997
COURTS TO REVIEW PROJECT GUARDIAN
Have police discriminated against gay men?
Story by Joseph Couture
The tables have turned on Project Guardian -- and now it's the London police
who'll be on trial.
Defence lawyer David Corbett has successfully argued to a London judge that
one of his clients cannot be fairly tried without examining the way in which
police handled some of their investigations in the Project Guardian dragnet.
"In the exercise of their investigation and prosecutorial discretion, the
London Police Force has applied different standards and techniques to policing
alleged sexual offences involving juvenile males and juvenile females, based
on their belief that homosexuality is bad in and of itself, and that sexual
relationships between juvenile males and other males are bad and unnatural,"
Corbett told a judge during a December Ontario Court, General Division
hearing.
And Justice Peter Hockin ruled, in a decision signed Jan 10, that the court
should examine whether police have discriminated on the basis of sexual
orientation.
No date has yet been set for that hearing.
Lawyer Corbett calls the ruling precedent setting. It sends the message that
"police forces cannot exercise their discretion in a manner that discriminates
on the basis of sexual orientation."
But Corbett warns that activists should not expect too much of the review.
The main issue, he says, is the apparently selective application of the law
pertaining to under-aged prostitutes, and not to Project Guardian in its
entirety. Project Guardian, launched by the London Police, has resulted in
the arrest of more than 60 gay men. They have been branded as paedophiles,
but the majority have in fact been charged with paying someone under 18 for
sex. Most of the hustlers are over 14, the legal age of consent.
Corbett is representing a Toronto resident who is facing prostitution-related
charges involving young males.
---EOF