KIDNAPPED!
After the death of my mother I was yoked with the 24/7 task of taking care of my crazed 81 year old father who at the time was still a practising chiropractor in Etobicoke, Ontario, a part of Toronto.
On July 2, 2002 I couldn't take nit anymore and in act of desperation loaded up my diesel VW Jetta and made the move of taking off cross country to Vancouver, British Columbia.
I had in my possession a cheque for over a thousand dollars and my first move was to drive to a MONEY MART to cash it. And I cashed it and phoned my confidante and friend John Gundy (Executive Producer of the White and Black EPs) and told him of my planned exodus. I also told friend and fellow actor Jason Barbeck and Christine Wrigglesworth former personal assistant to Adrienne Clarkson at the CBC.
I drove from whatever MONEY MART I went to and drove to John Gundys house on Summer-hill in downtown Toronto. John livers in Bob Ezrins old house and has the garnd piano from THE WALL in his living room.
John Gundy was having some kind of dinner party and I didn't stay I got in my car and continued on my journey.. I drove down Yonge Street which Summerhill runs into. My plan was to have a beer and a salad at a place called HEMINGWAY'S. It was a beautiful about to be evening and sitting on the outside would be a pleasure.
Parking downtown was usually a nightmare but I noticed a parking lot just off Yorkville Avenue and landed my Jetta immediately by Yorkville.
And like to point out to my international readers that Yorkville is a trendy, affluent part of downtown Toronto. My friend director Tibor Takacs and I once saw ELTON JOHN strolling down Yorkville attired in a coat of all ermine.
At EXACTLY 6:55 PM (I have photographic memory and I will never forget the parking stub I placed on my dashboard that evening) I parked my care and walked no more then twenty steps to the Yorkville Avenue sidewalk. I wore a black leather suit jacket and black pants.
In a nano second upon hitting the street I heard someone shout at me. I turned to notice a van with two smiling gentlemen in it, smiling and beckoning for me to come to them.
As I got to the van the continued to smile and encouraged me to have a seat in the back. The door being opened, foolishly, I did. I mean, my mother just died and my father turned into a Satanic Ritual Abuser. My actions and judgement were seriously askew.
When I got in the van and sat down, They slammed the door shut and were no longer smiling. Instead They punched me in the head several times, pushed a sharpened screwdriver into my neck and had me empty my pockets with all my money, keys my ACTRA card and my passport.
They proceeded to drive down Yorkville with me in the back as their captive. I tried to escape at the base of Yorkville Avenue around where Hemingway's was situated, but they caught my move for the lock on the van door and thwarted my escape. The passenger said he had a gun. They kept shouting at me as to my address and who was at home. not contented with my over one thousand in cash and potentially my care, they wanted to do a home invasion.
They drove across Avenue Road to a secluded area off Walmer Road. Avenue? No time to fact check.
With no one around on Walmer Road they stopped and parked the van. They told me:
"GET IN THE BACK AND LIE FACE DOWN!"
I didnt like that idea if you get the picture. They had my money my keys my ID and the van was stolen. They wanted me to get me to lie face down so they could stab me in the back and leave me in the abandoned van for dead.
1 comment:
NO NEW FRIENDS: A LOOK AT THE LAW RELATING TO MR. BIG IN R. V. HART
By: Susannah Chung-Alvares
A Mr. Big operation is a Canadian police technique by which a suspect is drawn into a fictitious criminal organization with the ultimate goal of securing a confession. Over a period of weeks or months, undercover officers within the organization befriend the suspect and offer him financial rewards. In the typical Mr. Big scenario, the suspect is questioned about the crime being investigated, and is ultimately pressed into giving a confession with the main incentive being membership into the criminal organization.
The Dangers of Mr. Big Operations
The jurisprudence recognizes the danger of unreliable confessions that are inherently part of Mr. Big operations because of the powerful nature of the inducements offered. The Supreme Court in R. v. Hart also acknowledged that while unreliable confessions “provide compelling evidence of guilt and present a clear and straightforward path to conviction,” they “have been responsible for wrongful convictions – a fact we cannot ignore.”[i]
Mr. Big confessions also involve evidence that the accused willingly took part in simulated crimes and wanted to join a criminal organization. This evidence tarnishes the accused’s character, and invites prejudice. For an accused who chooses to testify, it creates a bar to being believed.
Despite the well-established rule prohibiting the Crown from leading bad character evidence, this evidence has been regularly admitted in Mr. Big cases because it provides the context in which the confession was elicited. In fact, the accused might come to depend on the very evidence in order to show the type of inducements offered and, ultimately, why his confession should not be believed. Indeed, for a visceral and shocking example, I recommend watching the first two episodes of The Confession Tapes, a made for Netflix series chronicling various problems with confessions. (As a side-note, it is interesting that the Mr. Big technique is prohibited in the United States. However, in the case documented in those episodes, the suspects were Canadian and the Mr. Big operation was conducted in Canada, by Canadian police, so the American court admitted the evidence.)
It is also clear that Mr. Big operations run the risk of becoming abusive. This is apparent when considering the nature of the inducements, such as cash rewards, that are used to encourage suspects to confess, as well as an aura of violence that is often created by driving home the point that those who betray the organization are met with unfavourable consequences.
https://roylelaw.ca/no-new-friends-a-look-at-the-law-relating-to-mr-big-in-r-v-hart/
Post a Comment