Lawyer wounded in shooting outside office
TORONTO — A man who witnessed a “horrific” daytime attack in an upscale Toronto neighbourhood recalled Wednesday seeing a prominent criminal defence lawyer crawl towards his office after being shot, leaving a trail of blood behind him as officers fired at the gunman.
Peter Schilling, who saw the shooting from his second-floor office on Tuesday afternoon, said he was on the phone with a colleague staring out the window when he saw J. Randall Barrs get out of his car in the driveway of his Yorkville law office.
A silver Honda Civic then screeched to a stop at the end of the driveway around 3:30 p.m. and a man stepped out, Schilling said.
“He got out of the car and fired four to five shots and (Barrs) hit the ground right away, all lower body hits — and lots of blood, as you can see now,” Schilling said from his office, where he works as a surgical consultant.
A large blood stain remained Wednesday, leading from the end of the driveway to the front of the law office.
Seconds after the shots rang out, Schilling said he saw a man he believed to be an undercover officer sprint toward the scene, draw his weapon and begin firing at the gunman, who was wearing a reflective construction vest and hard hat.
The man tried to get away in the car, Schilling said, but was boxed in by unmarked SUVs.
“It was just absolutely horrific and as loud as you think it would be,” Schilling said. “It was like watching a TV show.”
Ontario’s police watchdog said plainclothes officers from nearby Halton Region were conducting surveillance in the area when a man opened fire on a lawyer who was leaving his office around 3:30 p.m.
The Special Investigations Unit said one of the officers shot the 51-year-old suspect, who is listed in serious condition in hospital after undergoing surgery. The agency, which investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault, has taken over part of the investigation.
Toronto police continue to investigate the shooting of the lawyer, said spokesman Const. Victor Kwong. Neither Toronto nor Halton regional police would say why Halton officers were in the area at the time.
Barrs, 66, remains in hospital recovering from gunshot wounds to his legs. A respected trial lawyer, Barrs has defended clients in several murder and drug cases, according to his website, and once worked on one of the biggest marijuana cases in Canadian history.
He once represented farmers who ran a marijuana grow-op in a former Molson brewery in Barrie, Ont. — one of the largest such busts in the country to this day. The men were sentenced to two to five years behind bars.
The attack comes roughly a year after a lawyer in Winnipeg was seriously hurt in a letter bombing that police allege was orchestrated by her client’s ex-husband.
Maria Mitousis lost her right hand in the July 2015 incident. Guido Amsel was charged with attempted murder after three letter bombs were sent to his former wife’s workplace and the offices of lawyers who had represented him and his wife in their divorce. He is set to face trial next year.
A former RCMP undercover narcotics agent turned lawyer, Paul Beaudry, was gunned down in his Montreal office by two assailants in 1991.
OTTAWA — Labour Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk says she expects to “see changes” flow from a legislative review concerning harassment issues within the RCMP after hearing from a disgruntled female Mountie.
Mihychuk asked for a briefing from Public Safety officials after receiving a message from an RCMP member who alleged the Mounties had failed to “adequately address her complaints” of sexual harassment through internal procedures, a government memo reveals.
The minister and her officials wanted to know more about the RCMP’s policies, procedures and guidelines to gauge the need for possible amendments to Part 2 of the Canada Labour Code, intended to protect employees from violence in the workplace.
Mihychuk said Wednesday that as someone who worked as a geologist in the male-dominated world of mining, she knows “it can be pretty rough” for working women.
“So I wanted to be sure that our government was going to be looking at it,” she said before entering a caucus meeting. “And then as minister of labour, of course, I’ll have an opportunity to have real input. So we’ll see changes.”
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale received a copy of the unidentified Mountie’s e-mail as well as messages and letters from 17 other people, including current and former RCMP members, detailing their experiences of workplace and sexual harassment within the police force, the memo adds.
The Canadian Press obtained a declassified version of the heavily censored February memo under the Access to Information Act.
The RCMP has been grappling for years with complaints from women and men about bullying and harassment.
Just two months ago, the national police force said it would launch a new effort to eliminate sexual misconduct in the workplace after an internal review criticized