Here’s an obvious comparison to climate scientists. No climate scientist or learned institution objected when Mann said that he would not be “intimidated” into disclosing his algorithm, but there was outrage from the learned instituions when civilians from the Barton Committee asked for the information. As someone who’s pushed at both systems, I don’t see a speck of difference in the behavior of the institutions on this class of issue – in both cases, “guilds” set highest priority on protecting their own. It’s humna nature. But the interest of the National Academy of Sciences in dealing with this type of issue is approximately as serious as that of the Toronto Police in dealing with a rogue cop – none.

If I knew how to write fiction, it would make a great Ross MacDonald type novel.

Maybe the IPCC can help you.

Seriously, this sort of thing is all too common and it seems the only difference between the good and bad guys is that one side has badges. In the US the “Policeman’s Bill of Rights” gags the release of information and a lot of stuff stays hidden. OTH, victim’s advocacy groups always play the conspiracy card in the media and make the authorities even more closed-mouth.

But if that kind of thing interests you Steve M, Might I recomend a book “The Brothers Bulger” By Howie Carr. Howie is a local newspaper/radio/ex-TV guy.

You wan’t to talk strange.

Whitey was the Brother of Billy, Whitey was high up in the local organized Crime ring, and Billy was high up in the State legislature. And they pretty blatantly took care of each-other.

Stand up to the Politician and the Mobster gives you a warning. Go after the Mobster and the Pol gives you a warning.

Ties in with law enforcement too. There are more than a few local cops and FBI types in Jail or fired for their involvement.

The only reason Whitey is on the run instead of jail is that the local FBI office gave Whitey a call when they were on the way to arrest him. At least one FBI agent is in jail for whacking a guy for Whitey.

In this case, it was the back story that was interesting and intrigued me and sounded like a Ross MacDonald novel. The detective’s father had formerly been a police chief in Toronto. He had resigned about 6 months after a strange inquiry – the Junger Inquiry- about 14 years ago. The son’s name turned up tangentially as being connected with a male prostitution ring being run by the police. In that case, the police had destroyed evidence in their deal with Junger. The policeman who was responsible for investigating my complaint was mentioned in the Junger Inquiry and was disciplined in it. It’s easy to picture circumstances where a reputable father got involved in a mess of his son’s making and then walked the plank. I once sat at lunch with a book agent and for some reason got into this story. If I knew how to write fiction, it would make a great Ross MacDonald type novel.

I don’t know about the legal system in Canada, but I assume at this level it is simlar to the U.S. in that it’s all derived from English common law. But once you run into that kind of a thing what you want to do is go over their heads. You go to a court, or a higher court, and apply for a writ of mandamus.

Of course that’s gonna cost you money (legal fees).

And I don’t say it will get anything done, for the most part it’s probably a waste of time, but between that and a press conference you might get some movement.

Wish I had the cash, I would do so to the INS myself.

Later I found out that the police did not even open an incident report on the assault. Then they said that they couldn’t locate any witnesses. They said that they couldn’t locate the witness statement from the American accountant. At the start, I had no reason to think that anything untoward was going on, but after a while, it was too weird. So I called the accountant and got a description of the detective and asked the Division to locate him. The cops got enraged at me for doing that and threatened to charge me with obstruction of justice. Like I’m easily intimidated.

I filed a formal complaint and got stonewalled. I appealed to review boards. Even with evidence that a witness statement had been destroyed, no one seemed to care. It’s almost like climate science.

I did find the name of the plainclothes detective through the complaint process. It was front page news in Toronto in 2004 when this very detective was charged for corruption some 4 years after my complaint.