Fantino needs to answer for Caledonia

You’ve stepped into the political arena Julian so you better get used to questions you won’t like.

Julian Fantino announced on Tuesday morning that he is running for the Conservative nomination in Vaughan to run in the upcoming by-election. He hit all the right notes of a law and order Conservative including questioning the wisdom of the gun registry.

From The Toronto Sun

Calling the registry “an obscene waste of taxpayer’s money,” he said too much was focused on benefits — providing police with information about registered guns — not enough on battling armed criminals who prey on society.

What Fantino didn’t mention in his speech is the biggest black mark on his storied career. Caledonia.

In Caledonia Fantino agreed to apply two standards of law, one for native protesters and one for all others. It’s true that the mess in Caledonia and the initial feeble reaction by the Ontario Provincial Police was not Faninto’s doing. The decision to treat native lawbreakers differently than others that crossed the police line was made by then OPP Commissioner Gwen Boniface or at least her higher-ups like Premier McGuinty. Fantino came in to clean up in late 2006 after Boniface was shuffled off to an international posting.

Fantino didn’t start the policy of applying the law differently based on race but neither did he appear to stop it.

If Fantino truly wants to be a law and order candidate he better start answering some questions. Here’s a few to start:

Why did the OPP apply the law unequally in Caledonia?

Did you make that call or did it come from the Premier’s office?

Do you believe that justice should be blind and the law applied equally regardless or race, colour or creed?

For those that want to know more about what happened in Caledonia you can find out by picking up Christie Blatchford’s new book Helpless. It comes out on October 26^th.