Canadian justice convicted a white Toronto police officer on Friday of beating and stabbing a young black man in 2016. This judgment is widely followed in Canada in the midst of a debate on systemic racism in the police.
Michael T., a Toronto police officer who was not on duty at the time of the incident, accompanied by his brother Christian, was found guilty of aggravated assault by an Ontario Superior Court judge after they beat Dafonte Miller and hit him with a metal pipe. Christian T. was released. Dafonte Miller, then 19, lost use of his left eye after the assault on December 28, 2016.
The two men, accused of aggravated assault and obstruction of justice, pleaded not guilty and claimed to have acted in self-defense. According to the defense, Dafonte Miller robbed cars before the altercation.
The judgment came in the context of protests denouncing racism and police violence, as part of the vast protest movement sparked by the death of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis, an American city a few hundred kilometers from Canada. . A hearing scheduled for July 15 will determine Michael T’s sentence. (ats / nxp)
Created: 27.06.2020, 06h05
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