Rebel News may face an uphill battle in suing the police for wrongful arrest of journalist David Menzies, experts in the field say, although high publicity and public commentary add more dimensions to the case.
On Jan. 8, Mr. Menzies was walking alongside Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on a Toronto-area street, asking her questions as she was on her way to an event, when he walked into a man who stepped in front of him and put his arm out to block Mr. Menzies.
When Mr. Menzies asked the man what he was doing, the man told Mr. Menzies “you are under arrest for assault” and then identified himself as police, saying that “you pushed into me.” The man turned out to be a plainclothes RCMP officer. Mr. Menzies was handcuffed and put into a police cruiser but was released the same day without charges. Rebel News has announced its intent to sue over the arrest.
Calvin Lawrence, a former policeman of 36 years, including 28 with the RCMP, says there was no justification for the arrest.
“He arrested him for assault on a police officer. And obviously, the reporter wouldn’t know him as a police officer because he didn’t identify himself first. So that’s obviously a bogus charge.”
Mr. Lawrence had a career providing security for Canadian prime ministers and international VIPs, including a visiting U.S. president, as well as giving training and lectures on the topic. He said the quality of RCMP security training had begun to decline before his retirement and that this latest incident showed the wrong approach.
“The whole thing was a misguided process to protect her [Ms. Freeland]. They were there, they had the mandate to do it, but they didn’t do it right,” he said.
Mr. Lawrence said most lawsuits for wrongful arrest end with an agreement that includes a non-disclosure clause. Action against the officer, including potential discipline, would depend on apparent intent, he said.
He added that discipline against police varies widely from losing a day’s pay to getting “nailed to the cross—it all depends on who you know and what circumstances will come into play for embarrassment.”
“I would think that the RCMP want to save face and just hope and pray that it goes away, or if something is done, there will not be much publicity,” Mr. Lawrence said. “They will probably drag it out so people will forget.”
‘Out of All Proportions’
Retired Mountie Andy Brooke, who served 28 years with the RCMP, said the arresting officer acted “ridiculously and out of all proportions” toward a reporter who seemed to be just doing his job.“If … the arrest is not lawful, if there is no lawful justification, and you resist, you’re not assaulting me, then the actions that I take are actually an assault upon you. That’s almost a 101 kind of thing.”
Mr. Brooke said it would be best if an outside police body investigated the matter. He said if charges were laid, discipline would be put aside until legal matters played out. If discipline came into play, past precedents in the officer’s policing should be considered.
“Even if you’re found not guilty of a criminal case, you can still be given your walking papers. You can still lose your badge. That’s how it was when I served.”
In April 2021, a Peel Regional Police sergeant was suspended after he accused a Global News journalist of “agitating” protesters outside a gymnasium that remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic in defiance of public health orders. In that case, the chief of police got personally involved and issued a public statement.
The RCMP says it’s looking into the incident.
“RCMP protective policing resources were involved in an incident while deployed on a protective operation,” spokesperson Sgt. Kim Chamberland said in an email to The Epoch Times.
“The RCMP is looking into the incident and the actions of all parties involved. No further comment is available at this time.”
Call for Parliamentary Committee Probe
Leland Keane, a retired Mountie from Nova Scotia, like Mr. Lawrence, says the action against Mr. Menzies wasn’t justified.“[The policeman] is ramped up, clearly taken by surprise, emotional, and over-reacting,” he told The Epoch Times in an email.
Mr. Keane, a consultant and former police association director who used to do use-of-force reports, said the video was “disturbing ... at face value” though “hardly the whole story.”
“The video is hard to watch. Police work is messy, dirty, and unpleasant at the best of times. We see people at their worst,” he said.
“RCMP members are disciplined, yes. Commissioned RCMP members (inspector and above and those on the list to be commissioned) have an unwritten code-of-conduct and are treated far more leniently if at all for breaching the law or code-of-conduct.”
The case has caught much publicity, including by the Conservatives. They want a parliamentary committee to look into it and are pressuring the Liberal government to explain its silence on the issue.
“Yesterday, a journalist was arrested and accosted on trumped-up charges by the RCMP after asking the Deputy Prime Minister why the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran] had still not been labelled a terrorist organization by the Government of Canada,” said Tory MP and shadow minister for civil liberties Marilyn Gladu in a statement on Jan. 9.
“Thus far, the Trudeau Liberals have not condemned this unjust arrest. Outrageously, this government has created a climate where journalists can face criminal charges for demanding answers on critical subjects.”
The Epoch Times contacted the offices of the prime minister and deputy prime minister for comment but didn’t hear back.
‘A Very Complex Case’
Retired Toronto policeman Donald Best told The Epoch Times that dropping charges against Mr. Menzies was “not good enough” and that the case represented “more weaponization of police against journalists.”“But the bottom line is, everybody gives protective officers wide discretion and leeway, probably more than they would with an ordinary police officer who is not in protected detail. And thus the threshold for initiating [a lawsuit], it’s got to be very clear,” he said.
“You have to prove that he knew he was a police officer. You also have to prove that he intended and knew he was doing a wrong thing. That’s a very complex case for something that happened in half a second.”
Mr. Best, who protected Pope John Paul II during a visit to Toronto, doesn’t expect the officer will be reprimanded.
“There’s no way this man is going to face discipline,” he said, adding that “a judge will back the police officer.”
Carleton University criminology professor Darryl Davies said he believes a lawsuit for “false arrest” was possible because the incident seemed owing to “provocation by the RCMP.”
Mr. Davies said wrongful incarceration lawsuits are more common than any for wrongful arrest.
“Mr. Menzies didn’t physically suffer any injuries. It ended up with him simply being spirited away in a police car, but it’s the embarrassment and humiliation that is at issue here,” he said in an interview.
“Mr. Menzies would have to show that he suffered considerable loss of his reputation or was injured in some way. How much compensation would he get for mere humiliation?”
