Sault loses its Crown

Sault Ste. Marie Crown Attorney Glen Wasyliniuk and local Ontario Court Justice Wayne Cohen are both retiring next month.

Wasyliniuk, who has been the Sault's Crown since 1990, was the keynote speaker at yesterday's Chamber of Commerce Police Services Awards event.

He is seen with Chief of Police Bob Davies at the event, where Wasyliniuk confirmed his intent to leave the Crown Attorney's office in June.

During his remarks, Wasyliniuk talked about the changing role of police officers, particularly in the courtroom.

He said there is a growing trend to put investigations on trial in the process of hearing charges against defendants.

To illustrate this trend, Wasyliniuk used several recent cases.

One was the case of Jeanette Niganobe, convicted last summer of driving while drunk and causing the death of Sault Ste. Marie Police Constable Donald Doucet and serious injury to his partner Constable William Freeman.

Wasuliniuk said the court spent weeks hearing evidence to help it decide whether police violated Niganobe's rights under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms when a sample of her breath was taken.

If the court had found the taking of that sample to be a significant violation of Niganobe's rights, it could have refused to allow it to be admitted as evidence that she was driving drunk.

Wasyliniuk said the officer who took that sample and the process he followed were on trial almost as much as Niganobe was.

"It makes me like cops even more," Wasyliniuk said.

Judge Cohen will be retiring on June 25, his 75th birthday.

75 is the mandatory retirement age for judges in Ontario.