Decision sends the right signal: Police must be held to a higher standard,

The six-year prison sentence handed to Const. James Forcillo delivers an extraordinary and necessary message: Misuse of police power will not go unpunished. And 18-year-old Sammy Yatim’s death will not be forgotten.

It’s hard to imagine this happening even a few years ago — a police officer sentenced to jail for shooting an armed suspect while on duty.

Yet the Thursday decision, by Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Then, is precisely what Toronto residents and, indeed, all Canadians, needed to see. It comes at a time of grave concern, here and across North America, over excessive use of force by police. And it sends exactly the right signal.

Then, quite rightly, found that police officers must be held to a higher standard than members of the public. They have a duty even to those they arrest and must use lethal force only as a last resort, after other de-escalation techniques have failed.

Forcillo violated this standard when he abandoned his training and shot Yatim, on a Toronto streetcar three years ago, in a manner that was “unreasonable, unnecessary and excessive,” Then said.

The circumstances of Yatim’s death were made starkly clear in videos of the tragedy. The youth, armed with a switchblade knife, appeared to be cornered on an empty streetcar by a large number of police. Forcillo was the only officer who opened fire, and did so in two volleys.

His first three bullets knocked Yatim to the streetcar floor with fatal injuries. But Forcillo didn’t stop there. As Yatim struggled in the grip of death the Toronto constable fired another six shots, hitting the teenager five more times.

A jury cleared Forcillo in January of a seconddegree murder charge in connection with the first volley, evidently accepting his claim of acting in self-defence. But it was far harder, indeed impossible, to excuse his second set of shots. The jury found Forcillo guilty of attempted murder, on grounds that he was clearly trying to kill someone who, at that point, posed no threat at all. Yatim was, in fact, beyond any help.

In the matter of sentencing, the defence urged special consideration for Forcillo, arguing he had acted in “excessive self-defence” while carrying out his duties as a police officer. Attempted murder carries a five-year mandatory minimum sentence, but Forcillo’s lawyer urged Then to set this aside, on constitutional grounds, in favour of just two years of house arrest.

That penalty would have been a shocking miscarriage of justice. Judge Then did well in rejecting this argument and imposing, instead, a significant jail term.

Forcillo’s legal team has already filed notice to appeal his conviction. Like anyone else found guilty by a judge, he has a right to take this step. But it will be hard for his lawyers to overcome the powerful video evidence at the heart of this case and Then’s adroit handling of the trial.

Yatim’s death has already made a difference, heightening awareness of a need to better train police. The sentence levelled against Forcillo adds to that legacy. A six-year jail term for the man who killed him won’t bring Sammy Yatim back. But it should make all rogue officers better understand that they risk significant punishment if they commit abuses. Such awareness may change behaviour and, perhaps, even avert a future tragedy.

A six-year jail term imposed on Toronto constable should deter other rogue cops