Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino acknowledges that a Caledonia couple are no longer suspected by police of ransacking their own home and spray-painting their walls with vile epithets and racial slurs.
David Brown, 42, and Dana Chatwell, 45, are suing the province and provincial police for $7 million in the aftermath of a tense standoff near their home between aboriginal protesters and police in 2006.
Court has heard the couple returned home early one morning in December of that year to find their furniture overturned and electronics and computer equipment smashed. Even their teenaged son's cherished guitar and amplifier were trashed.
During testimony earlier this week, Brown, whose home borders the former Douglas Creek Estates that were occupied by native protesters earlier in 2006, described being stunned by the destruction and hatred levelled at him and his wife.
He said the walls were covered with obscene graffiti, the mildest of which stated "go home'' and other slurs calling the homeowners "pigs,'' "white trash'' and "racists.''
"I was scared to death. I walked in and everything we owned was just demolished,'' said Brown.
The couple's lawsuit against the Ontario government and provincial police claims the province and its agents have a hands-off policy when it comes to native protesters and have ignored even serious unlawful conduct because of the political sensitivities surrounding aboriginal land claims.
The plaintiffs claim they lived under siege for more than a month in April 2006, trapped inside a lawless zone between the occupied land and the native barricades.
After the barricades came down on May 23, 2006, they claim the police have ignore acts of harassment, intimidation, threats to burn down their house and nuisances and trespasses on their property committed by the protesters.
After their home was ransacked, police did come and take pictures of the damage, but it soon became clear to Brown and Chatwell that they were considered suspects.
The trial ursday with a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Michael Bordin, reading into the record testimony during earlier pre-trial proceedings from the Ontario Provincial Police's regional director of operations Supt. John Cain, and Fantino.
In examination for discovery, Cain acknowledged the police actively investigated Brown and Chatwell for the vandalism after receiving information from a member of the provincial police force's Aboriginal Relations Team that pointed to them as possible suspects.
The couple's lawyer, John Evans, asked the officer, "Did any interviews of any First Nations people take place with respect to the break-in and vandalism?''
Cain replied: "I'm not aware of any First Nations people being interviewed as suspects.''
In January, Fantino acknowledged the police no longer consider Brown and Chatwell as suspects.
"I believe that was the outcome of the investigation,'' said Fantino.
The commissioner said the matter remains under investigation and no other suspects have been questioned or apprehended.
Brown, who developed a stomach bug Wednesday, is under doctor's orders to rest in bed.
His cross-examination by Crown counsel David Feliciant is not expected to resume until Monday at the earliest.