‘We made the wrong decision that night’
Interim chief apologizes over Toronto police’s failure to call SIU after Dafonte Miller beating
It was simply the “wrong decision.”
Three and a half years after Black teen Dafonte Miller was catastrophically injured during an assault by off-duty Toronto officer Michael Theriault, the force’s new interim police chief formally apologized for failing to call in Ontario’s police watchdog to investigate in the case.
“We made the wrong decision that night,” James Ramer, who took over as interim chief on Aug. 1, told a news conference Thursday. “As a result of that decision, trust has been broken between the police, Dafonte Miller and the broader community. For that, on behalf of the Toronto police service, I want to apologize.”
The long-sought admission follows years of outcry and allegations of a coverup by Toronto and Durham Regional police, whose officers responded to the December 2016 assault in Whitby, near the Theriault family home, which left Miller permanently blinded in one eye.
Neither police force called in the Special Investigation Unit, Ontario’s arm’slength, civilian police watchdog, to investigate Theriault’s actions.
That’s despite provincial law requiring police to notify the SIU of a serious injury involving a police officer.
Instead, the watchdog was only informed of the assault four months later by Miller’s lawyer Julian Falconer. The SIU then swiftly opened the investigation that led to criminal charges against Michael Theriault and to his June conviction of assault.
Falconer has alleged that the SIU was not notified by either police service on the night of the incident as part of a “deliberate and intentional effort on the part of police authorities to conceal a crime by one of their own.”
Reached Thursday, Falconer said Ramer’s Thursday comments came as a “complete surprise” to Miller and his family, and that he wouldn’t be immediately commenting.
Michael Theriault was initially charged with aggravated assault alongside his younger brother, Christian Theriault. Both brothers were found not guilty of that charge, but Michael Theriault was convicted of the less serious offence of assault. The brothers were also found not guilty of attempting to obstruct justice in the case.
A sentencing hearing for Theriault is scheduled to be held next month.
Ramer said during the news conference Thursday that both sides were appealing the verdict. Reached Thursday, Theriault’s lawyer, Michael Lacy, confirmed the Crown has appealed the brothers’ acquittals, but said his client has up to 30 days after any sentence is imposed to file an appeal.
Ramer’s apology came the same day the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) — a provincial body that investigates police complaints — completed an investigation into Toronto police handling of the case. Its confidential report has since been provided to the Toronto police board and to Miller.
While Ramer said he could not release the report or provide details about its findings, he said it focused on a police service’s duty to report to the SIU.
Asked why it took more than three years for the Toronto police to apologize to Miller and his family, Ramer said: “This is only day five for me.”
He added: “Given the report that I just received, I felt it was important for me as a chief to do that.”
At the Thursday news conference, Ramer committed to developing a policy ensuring that Toronto police service will notify the SIU about any serious injury involving a civilian and a police officer, regardless of whether the officer was off duty or not. The Durham Regional Police announced a similar change in policy in 2017.
The move was celebrated by Mayor John Tory and by the Toronto police board, which said in a statement that “we echo the apology that has been made to Mr. Miller and to the community at large.”
Tory called Ramer’s commitment to ensuring the SIU is called whether an officer is on or off duty “an important step towards repairing trust.”
Howard Morton, a Toronto lawyer and past director of the SIU, said police services have been legally required to notify the SIU when a civilian is seriously injured since 1990 — “you shouldn’t need a policy,” he told the Star Thursday.
The failure to notify the SIU of serious injuries involving police was the subject of “most of my big big fights,” Morton said, adding: “They just wouldn’t call.” Previous SIU directors have also raised concerns with Toronto police about failures to notify the watchdog about civilian injuries, or delays as long as months or longer.
“While the interim Chief’s apology is a good step, it’s regrettable it took an incident like this one to bring this basic issue of immediate notification to a head after all these years,” said Ian Scott, who was the SIU director from 2008 to 2013. Desmond Cole, a Toronto journalist and activist who has written and spoken extensively about the Theriault case, said Ramer’s comments demonstrate that when police “break the law there are literally no consequences.”
“What Ramer is now telling us is that police will follow the law from here on in. The fact is that police can break the Police Services Act without facing consequence,” Cole said.
Sarah Jama, a spokesperson for Black Lives Matter Toronto, said it shouldn’t have taken more than three years for the Toronto police to apologize — but “we weren’t waiting for an apology, we knew that this was wrong.”
“The issue is bigger than this apology, we need to take power from police and move it into the community,” she said in an interview, adding that the case shows why police need to be defunded and money put towards communities.
The Theriault brothers’ father, John Theriault, is a former Toronto police officer who was working in the Toronto police professional standards unit at the time of the assault — the unit that handles officer misconduct including incidents involving the SIU.
In a written complaint to the OIPRD in 2017, Falconer alleged that John Theriault “repeatedly contacted (Durham police) investigators to gain information relating to the status of the investigation.”
Ramer would not comment on John Theriault’s role when asked about it Thursday, citing ongoing investigations, but revealed that on the night of the assault neither he nor thenchief Mark Saunders were informed of the incident.
In addition to the OIPRD, the Waterloo Regional Police are also conducting an external review of Toronto police’s handling of Miller’s assault. That review will focus on why the SIU was not called, and its findings will be presented to the Toronto police board.
“We have requested and are awaiting documents and information from the SIU, the Crown, and TPS,” a spokesperson for Waterloo police aid. “Once we have that information, which should be very soon, we will have a better idea on how long the review and writing of the report will take.”
Aspokesperson for the OIPRD confirmed Thursday that one of three investigations it has launched into Miller’s assault has been completed and provided to the Toronto police board. Citing confidentiality provisions with Ontario’s Police Services Act, the OIPRD said it cannot provide a copy of the report or provide any further details.
Kate Puddister, a University of Guelph professor who researches police oversight, said she was pleased to hear Ramer acknowledge Toronto police made a mistake when they failed to notify the SIU.
“Notification is vital for the process of civilian oversight to function, but equality important, proper notification demonstrates to the public that the process exists and is functioning well — and this is crucial to promote public confidence in SIU investigations and police oversight,” she said.