A group of Canadian news organizations is asking a judge to unseal police search warrants that they believe could shed light on whether Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has a connection to alleged members of a criminal organization.
Police in Toronto and Windsor arrested 43 people in mid-June in what investigators dubbed "Project Traveller." They allege the suspects were part of the "Dixon City Bloods" gang, which police claim was trafficking in cocaine, crystal meth and illegal guns smuggled into Canada from the U.S.
The raids came weeks after reports emerged that Ford had been allegedly caught on video smoking a crack pipe. The mayor has denied the allegations and said the video does not exist.
An online fundraising campaign by the U.S. gossip website Gawker raised $200,000, but failed in a bid to buy the alleged video. It's never been made public and CBC News has not seen it and cannot verify whether it even exists.
"First of all we have an absolute right to this material, subject to the Crown raising good reasons why not," said Peter Jacobsen, a lawyer hired by CBC News, the Globe and Mail, Sun Media and a number of other news outlets.
"But more importantly this is all connected with the Ford video — or the alleged Ford video — and it also relates directly to the kind of governance we are getting in the city."
Media want evidence unsealed
"Project Traveller" targeted a number of individuals and addresses that became associated with the recent Ford controversy.
Two of the men arrested in June, Muhammad Khattak and Monir Kassimm, were pictured in a now infamous photograph posing with Ford.
A third man in the photo, Anthony Smith, who police say was also a member of the Dixon City Bloods, was shot and killed in March.
"This is of great public interest as it may relate to allegations that the Mayor of Toronto has been associated with members of a criminal organization and was videotaped by them using crack cocaine," states a formal court application filed by media groups which asks a judge to unseal police "informations" filed by investigators to obtain search warrants for the June raids.
The media application goes on to argue that "the addresses at which the search warrants … were executed are reportedly associated with an alleged video depicting Mayor Ford. There are reports that the residential complex along Dixon Road at the heart of the raids includes a location where the alleged video depicting Mayor Ford may have been kept and that the police were aware of the alleged video before its existence became public."
Jacobsen notes there is no certainty that the warrants contain any evidence implicating the mayor in any wrongdoing; but he insists seeing the warrants may be the only way to clear the air.
"The Ford photo appears to have been taken in the same area. There are many, many connections, none of them 100 per cent solid. But there's enough of them to make us think that it's in the public interest that we find out more about this investigation," Jacobsen said Monday.
Crown seeks 6-month delay
The Crown is asking the court to delay the media request by six months, but has taken the unusual step of requesting secrecy from lawyers hired by the media.
Jacobsen says the Crown involved in the "Project Traveller" prosecution has provided a detailed reply to the media organization's lawyers, but has asked that they not tell their own clients why the Crown feels the warrants should remain sealed from public view.
CBC News yesterday emailed Crown prosecutor Paul Renwick, as well as Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General spokesperson Brendan Crawley, requesting an explanation for the secrecy and for the request for a six-month adjournment, but they so far have not replied.
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