An Ottawa criminal lawyer says the Toronto police force’s decision to buy high-powered rifles in bulk for front-line use is “incredibly misguided.”
“Weapons, when they’re accessible to police, tend to be used,” Michael Spratt of Abergel Goldstein & Partners said in an interview with The Huffington Post Canada on Friday. “We’ve seen this in the Yatim case.”
He was referring to the teen who was shot to death by police on a Toronto streetcar in 2013 after officers responded to calls that Sammy Yatim was brandishing a knife. Const. James Forcillo is currently awaiting a verdict in his trial for second-degree murder and attempted murder.
In the same week that the jury began deliberating, the Toronto Police Service announced it is purchasing 51 military-style assault rifles.
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Read Emma Paling’s full article: Huffington Post
