2. Belinda Stronach. If you mirror Belindas picture and change her hair color to a dark brunette, there is a distinct resemblance to Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
3. Bill Gates. Some flamer using "the name" tried to sling one by. But unfortunately the information registered in the comments crossed the line to slander. This happens. He also claimed I didn't know copyright laws but didn't cite a single example of where I went wrong. I rather suspect he or she or both rather doesn't know them at all.
American copyright laws do not have the education exemption as of 1990, the last time I worked in journalism. It is one reason why the American education is so stupid. Common knowledge is copyrighted there. Canadian copyright laws work differently.
The major changes to Canadian copyright legislation in recent years involve electronic media and broadcasting... and graphic images aka photos. I cannot recall reading about any major changes to print copyright legislation. If you have anything actually uniquely intelligent to say, take another draft at it.
4. Radler is on the stand for day two. So far testimony has been as predicted. The bizarre thing is the persistent defense claim that Conrad Black didn't know about anything about it. Ya sure. Tens of millions show up in my bank account tax free, and I don't know anything about it? I don't think any jury member will believe that one.
5. Paris Hilton is off to jail. Apparently she claimed that she didn't realize that a suspended license also meant that she couldn't drive. One might suspect that there is a very remote possibility that Conrad may be her true father otherwise there might a definite genetic relationship. They seem to use the same legal excuse.
Hey! Maybe Paris will become a Canadian citizen too! Less jail time.
6. Several Toronto Police are up on corruption charges. They come from 14 division. They are alleged to have persistently run a referral service for the tow trucks. As yet the supervising authorities making these charges haven't come up with how the individual policemen benefited from such a relationship.
Last I looked a key component to making corruption charges stick in court was the amount of pay off and just what was the pay off. So these charges are just show. Any dimwitted defense lawyer can beat this set of charges from the information provided. Hell even a family court paralegal can beat these wraps.
The allegations so far published are really sketchy. And since this involves only one police precinct is this the only precinct? Read the story for yourself students. If you are not a student don't read this story.
Officers misled motorists, police allege
Use of towing firms called into question
Four police officers are accused of forcing drivers of crashed and disabled automobiles into using certain tow-truck operators, according to internal discipline documents released yesterday.
The accusations involve 100 crashed cars that were whisked away by tow-truck drivers without owner permission, all of them in west-end 14 Division between January, 2005, and the summer of 2006.
In some cases, damaged vehicles were towed from accident scenes on an officer's order, even when the owner wanted to use a different towing company, according to the notices of hearings concerning the internal Police Act charges that were made available to reporters yesterday.
Dozens of vehicles were wrongly deemed unsafe and unnecessarily towed, the notices of hearings allege. At one accident scene, a woman who disagreed with an officer's assessment that her car had a bent frame and should be immediately towed was threatened with charges, it is alleged.
Toronto Police Constables Shawn Howard, Christopher Lee, Douglas Schouten and Joseph Labelle, all of 14 Division uniform patrol, collectively face 40 Police Act misconduct charges. None of the allegations have been tested in court.
There is no indication that the allegations are in any way linked, and the 40 charges give only a few details about the alleged tow violations. No motive is stated, nor suggested.
No tow-truck company is named in the notices of hearing.
The majority of incidents described in the documents stem from about 90 road accidents involving almost 100 drivers on streets like Dundas Street West, Bloor Street West, Dufferin Street, Lansdowne Avenue and Ossington Avenue.
Police procedure states that in the event of an accident, either the driver or the vehicle owner can choose the tow-truck company.
If the vehicle cannot be driven or cannot be safely removed from the road, or when the owner's tow choice cannot attend within a reasonable time, police officers - provided they have the driver or owner's permission - can call on a list of approved tow-truck companies.
Howard Moscoe, chairman of Toronto licensing and standards committee, declined to comment about the internal charges yesterday. "But I will say that the tow-truck drivers in this city make most of their money making illegal deliveries for garages ... and they will do anything to get the vehicle to their preferred garage," he said. "Some of them are extremely inventive. I would not be surprised to know they use some of their influence on police officers to direct tows."
The allegations came to light last week when the charges were mentioned at the police tribunal in front of reporters who were there to observe an unrelated case.
Mike Abbott, director of uniform services for the Toronto Police Association, was there on behalf of the absent officers and waived a reading of the charges on that day, as the matter was put over until next month.
Reporters requested the Police Act notices of hearing, and after a four-day wait they got the documents yesterday.
Constable Lee faces 14 charges, two of which refer to allegations from 34 different accident scenes on major west-end streets. The notice of hearing alleges Constable Lee "arranged or directed" the towing of vehicles "without the direction, or contrary to the direction of the owner or driver."
Constable Howard is alleged to have directed the towing of 17 crash vehicles and "misinformed" 10 other people that their vehicles were "unsafe to drive and required towing" when it was not necessary.
Constable Schouten allegedly directed nine cars to tow trucks and directed two other vehicles to a non-contract pound.
Constable Labelle allegedly directed five vehicles to be towed and two vehicles to be unnecessarily towed.
The notice of hearing also alleges that in an accident between a civilian and a tow-truck driver, Constable Labelle verbally "chastised" a woman who complained that the tow-truck driver had refused to give her any licence information.
"You shouted at Ms. D.T. and chastised her for calling the police. You asked Ms. D.T. if she was aware that that police had better things to do than attend such a minor call," the charge alleges.
Toronto Police Service spokesman Mark Pugash declined to comment on the charges yesterday, saying it would be "improper" to discuss any case before the tribunal.
- Globe and Mail, today...
1 comment:
I don't envy those guys. They're on their way to Kangaroo Court to try and prove they aren't guilty.
There's something fishy about this story. There is no way the tow truck drivers or any tow truck company could have paid them enough money to make this worthwhile.
Also, isn't Yorktown the official tow company or has that changed over the years? How did they avoid calling the 'official' tow company? Don't they still tender a city contract every year?
Maybe they ignored the 'official' tow company and got turned in for doing that? If so, it doesn't mean they got paid - it just means they didn't use the right company.
I can see it happening. No-one likes a some of those towing companies and many of their employees used to be criminals.
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