Canadian police face long arm of the law

2014: Quebec provincial police officer Eric Deslauriers was charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of a teen after a car chase in a stolen vehicle.

2013: Toronto police officer Const. James Forcillo was charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder in connection with the death of Sammy Yatim, 18, killed after being shot nine times on a Toronto streetcar. He is scheduled to go to trial this year.

2010: Toronto police officer Const. David Cavanaugh was charged with second-degree murder — the first Toronto on-duty police officer to be charged with murder — in the shooting death of drug and firearms trader Eric Osawe, 26, during a warranted emergency task-force search of his apartment. Cavanaugh was originally charged with manslaughter and that charge was upped to second-degree murder. The murder charge was thrown out by the court at the preliminary-inquiry stage and the judge noted there was no evidence even for manslaughter.

1998: York Region police Const. Randy Martin was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Tony Romagnuolo, who was shot four times outside his home in Sunderland, Ont. He was acquitted.

Plus, in the time since the 1990 inception of Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, which looks into deaths involving police, six officers have been charged with manslaughter in various cases and all were acquitted.

In B.C., in the 1970s, two people were shot in separate incidents struggling with police during an arrest: One officer was charged with manslaughter, but it was dismissed at the preliminary inquiry and another was charged with seconddegree murder and was found not guilty at trial.