Ontario Judge sets president that law is not equal for everyone, denies human rights.
Judge Graham of the Woodstock Courthouse, in Woodstock Ontario, has proven himself to be unworthy of being a judge. The following story describes a criminal justice system in Ontario that is corrupt and broken, and does not honour human rights.
In a legal drama that began on July 26, 1996, when Derek Birch was riding his bicycle as part of a peaceful protest against the Toronto police’s unwillingness to enforce the many laws that exist to ensure cyclist safety. A legal drama that has continued to this very day, where now Derek Birch has been given a criminal record simply for striving to be heard.
Alan Benton who was a constable with the Toronto Police in 1996, who during the protest Intentionally rammed his police cruiser into a crowd of 300 peaceful cyclists, causing them to scatter. Birch was unable to get out of the way fast enough due to the volume of other cyclists, and was hit from behind by the rogue police car. The impact gave him whiplash and damaged his bicycle from the rear as he attempted unsuccessfully to get out of Benton’s way.
Upon being hit by the front right hand corner of the bumper, Birch bounced forward and sideways just enough that the police cruiser stopped with its right front fender on his left. Birch turned around in his seat, shouted at Alan Benton for having hit him, and the attempted to continue on his way.
As He tried to ride forward something was preventing him from moving. It was like something was holding him back, and he could barely move. Birch didn’t realize it yet, but the back fender of his bike was bent into the tire, and the rear axle was broken. The effort of trying to ride caused the fender to “accordion”upwards. Birch only managed to move a few feet when Alan Benton got out of the drivers side of the car, ran around the front of the car, physically tackled Birch from his bike, slammed his head down on the hood of the car, handcuffed him, and threw him into the back of the cruiser. This action by Alan Benton with hundreds of witnesses angered the crowd sufficiently that the peaceful protest turned into a riot. Derek Birch was eventually taken to 52 Division, placed in a holding cell for 6 hours with no food, water or even a toilet.
Alan Benton claims that Birch kicked the police car. This is a lie. Derek Birch was hit from behind and ended up beside the front right fender of the car with his left leg between the fender and the bike, and a bicycle between his legs. From a position like that it is not humanly possible for him to have kicked the police car. Birch’s left leg had no room to move, and his right leg had a bike between it and the car. Furthermore the damage to the back of the bike, and the whiplash he received, was extensive enough to prove inconclusively that Birch had been rear ended by the police car.
In Canada we have the basic human right to peaceful protest. Alan Benton violated that right when he intentionally rammed his police cruiser into the crowd of peaceful cyclists.
Alan Benton should be charged for the following crimes:
Dangerous driving causing bodily harm,
Assault,
Wrongful arrest,
Unlawful confinement, and
Inciting a riot.
Alan Benton has never been investigated for any of these crimes, despite the fact that Birch has spent the last 22 years ‘shouting from the rooftops’ [sic] about what Benton did to Him. “I have done everything humanly possible to get the Toronto Police and the judiciary to listen to me but my complaints fall on deaf ears” says Birch. The law applies to everyone including the police, yet there are dozens of loopholes that allow the police to violate the same laws they are obligated to uphold. When one of these loopholes is not present, then lying seems to become the order of the day. Anything to ensure that Allan Benton never has to face indictment for his crimes. If anyone else had done these same things, they would have been prosecuted to the full extent of that law. Yet because Alan Benton was a Toronto Police officer at the time, he is treated as though he is immune to prosecution.
There is something well documented that is known as the Blue Wall of Silence where police officers cover and lie to protect one another. I have included a print out of the Wikipedia page on The Blue Wall of Silence for your perusal.
Other blockages to justice Birch has experienced:
- The SIU (Special Investigations Unit) won’t investigate because PTSD and whiplash are not recognized by them as a serious injuries.
- The OPIRD (Office of the Independent Review Director) claims that they are specifically mandated that they are not allowed to investigate anything that happened before they were first formed.
- Birch has been directed to Legal Aid hundreds of times by people within the judiciary who should know that Legal-Aid is mandated that they are only allowed to help defendants, not claimants. Clearly these people are just passing the buck.
Some of the apparent corruption Birch has experienced includes:
- Alan Benton lied when he claimed that Birch had kicked the police car. He was fully willing to allow Birch to go to prison for a maximum of 4 years in order to cover up for his (Benton’s) wrongful behaviour.
- The Crown Attorney offered an illegal plea bargain: If Birch dropped the complaint against Alan Benton, they would drop the charges against him. However, after Birch dropped my complaint, the crown revoked the plea bargain claiming it was not a legal plea bargain and was not enforceable. In the end the charges against Birch were finally dropped because his lawyer threatened to press criminal charges against the Crown Attorney unless the plea bargain was re-instated. As such, the plea bargain was reinstated 5 minutes before the trial began.
- While there were only 2 police officers in the car that hit Birch, Alan Benton, and Denise Williamson, 6 police officers were present at the trial to testify against Birch.
- In his efforts to press charges against Alan Benton, Birch had been denied representation by lawyers for years, In 2013 Birch went to the Justice of the Peace office to press charges against Alan Benton himself without any representation. Birch was granted a pre-enquette. The purpose of a pre-enquette is to show that there is enough evidence to go to trial. though Birch had plenty of evidence and 2 witnesses, In the end Justice of the Peace Christopher Peltzer, claimed that he could not find Alan Benton “guilty” because Benton was not there to defend himself. As such Birch was denied both process, and a transcript of the hearing. It is not up to the JP to find Alan Benton guilty or innocent, nor was Alan Benton required to testify. The JPs decision was improper.
- Birch filed a complaint against Justice of the Peace Christopher Peltzer, but was told that the complaints board is only allowed to investigate complaints of a violent or sexual nature. There is no way to complain about inappropriate and improper decisions.
- Birch wrote a letter to the Attorney General about the JP Peltzer’s behaviour, but security stopped the letter from getting through and Birch was denied absolutely the right to contact the Attorney General. Upon Googleing the name of the security guard, Greg Hatswell, who had blocked the communication with the Attorney General, it was discovered that Hatswell is a former Toronto Police Officer.
This description of Birch’s efforts covers only a small corner of what Birch has gone through over the years to achieve justice, with always with the same results.
The judiciary is based on the assumption that everyone should have a lawyer, and yet lawyers cost an average of $350 per hour. The constitution guarantees the basic human right to equal access to justice, however low income people like Birch can’t afford to pay for a lawyer to help in their pursuit of justice. Therefore the for-profit nature of the legal “industry” exists in direct violation of the constitutionally guaranteed right to equal access to justice.
Derek Birch can never forget what Alan Benton did to him and leave it behind, because he has developed CPTSD, Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This disorder means that He continually re-lives everything that happened that day. He has nightmares regularly, and wakes up screaming. The anxiety gets so bad that he stops breathing in my sleep at times, and wakes up thinking he is drowning. That anxiety also causes Birch’s temper to have a hair trigger so he gets angry and yells at people very easily. Birch spent the first 10 years after the incident so traumatized that he had only two emotions; extreme anger, or extreme despair and just switched back and forth between the two. The poverty, anxiety, and despair He experiences on a daily basis are a constant reminder of what Alan Benton did to him, and that holds me in the past. It is impossible to let-go of the past when you have PTSD because the PTSD means the past is holding on to you.
The emotional trauma that causes CPTSD, has a similar effect on the brain as massive physical trauma, so now after 22 years when Birch get in a stressful situation, his brain shuts down. He becomes incapable of processing thoughts, and is left with basic survival instincts. These symptoms make it impossible for Birch to hold down a job, or to remain in a relationship, so as a direct result of Alan Benton’s actions Birch has lived in poverty ever since.
Having to deal with the legal system without a lawyer causes him to face the situation directly which triggers the CPTSD and makes it worse, yet has no choice but to continue to pursue justice on his own without a lawyer, only to have his CPTSD triggered again and again.
Derek Birch is under treatment now, the meds He is on are helping immeasurably, but the conundrum continues. CPTSD from the event, plus no lawyer to help, plus dealing it himself, equals CPTSD gets triggered, brain fog, and extreme anger.
As a result of triggered PTSD, In October of 2017, Birch had a complete meltdown, contacted Alan Benton, and said terrible things on his voicemail. Birch threatened to kill himself on Benton’s, front porch and make him (benton) watch knowing that he would carry that memory with him for the rest of his life, and that it was his own fault. Birch had yet again been refused help from a pro-bono lawyer in his pursuit of justice, being told the old standby, “The time limit is up and there is nothing we can do about it”. That excuse angers Birch more than any other, because the only reason the time limit is up is because nobody would listen to him before the time limit was up, and now that it IS up they just tell him it is too late.
Even when explained the myriad of loopholes why that rule can be overlooked, Lawyers refuse to help anyway. Because of this rejection Birch was attempting to launch a litigation suit against Alan Benton himself, without a lawyer, but not being a lawyer, does not know how to do that. Being told yet again that the time is up, and subsequently dealing with it on his own, triggered his CPTSD in a really bad way, and that is what caused the meltdown leading to the threat.
It is unfair to impose a time limit on justice, especially since the lies and apparent corruption of the judiciary are the only reason the time limit ran out at all. This time limit is the ultimate violation to the right to justice. Derek Birch’s right to justice has been systemically violated by the judiciary for 22 years, in their continued efforts to protect Alan Benton, and prevent Birch from taking him to court. It is important to remember that human rights are paramount, and any time the law, or the rules of the court conflict with human rights, it is the law and the rules of the court which must bend. Rights are called “rights” for a reason and are absolute.
It is clear that the rules of the judiciary are based on the premise that the police are fair and impartial, which is a lovely concept, but it is also clear that some police officers aren’t necessarily so. This premise causes immeasurable harm to people like Birch who are victims of police corruption, and are left with no recourse.
In Canada we have the right to freedom of expression. Birch has been told in the past that he is not allowed to contact Alan Benton, the court sees contacting him as harassment and a violation of his rights. Yet Birch feels that since the judiciary refuses to investigate Benton for his criminal action in 1996, that his only recourse is to pester Benton to ensure that Benton never forgets what he did to Birch. Is it fair to enforce Benton’s right to not be bothered by Birch, while systemically allowing Benton to just get away with what he did to Birch, when doing so continues the violation of Birch’s human rights? Alan Benton and Derek Birch are equals under the law. Benton’s rights bear no more influence than Birch’s do, yet Alan Benton gets to retire on a comfy pension, and he continues by (now) teaching other people how to be police officers. Imagine, this man who willfully drove a police cruiser into a crowd of peaceful cyclists, hitting Birch from behind. This man who willfully destroyed Birch’s life to cover for himself, teaches other people how to be cops. That’s sickening.
Derek Birch says he is angry, and believes he has the right to be. He is angry at Alan Benton for what he did, and Birch is angry at the entire judiciary, that systemically covers up for police corruption. As far as Birch was concerned the charges from 2017 were merely intended to shut him up and continue the cover up of police corruption, as such they represent a clear effort to intimidate Birch into silence. This now adds Legal Intimidation to the list of concerns against Alan Benton.
In Canada we have”
- the basic human right to peaceful protest;
- the basic human right to justice;
- the basic human right to equal access to justice;
- the basic human right to freedom of expression; and all of these rights have been systemically violated for 22 years. Yet Birch was criminally charged for violating Alan Benton's right to not be “bothered by me” [sic]. Alan Benton is now retired from the Toronto police and now lives in Tillsonberg, so it was the Tillsonberg police who arrested Birch in 2017, and the trial was held in Woodstock.
In the words of Derek Birch: “I’ve spent 22 years in a fog, in a loop, caught in the same trauma. The only thing that finally brought me out of it was that I contacted Alan Benton. I threatened to hurt myself, because I couldn’t live that cycle of trauma any more. I couldn't continue to re-live my trauma day after day. Contacting Alan Benton was a cry for help, and a cry of defeat and of struggle and loss. I threatened to hurt someone; that someone was myself. By doing so I finally got help and support. Now I don't live in as much fog any more. Now I can finally be clear and talk openly, and now I can finally be heard, because I am not trapped in that moment any more. It has taken 22 years, to get the psychological help I need. I had fallen though the cracks so much that I was not diagnosed at all for the first 17 years that I had this condition. After that first diagnoses, I no longer trusted anyone, so I still did not accept help. It was not until I was arrested this past October and encouraged to get help, that I was finally put on medication for CPTSD. This medication has made a significantly positive impact on my life. I am happier and I no longer get angry, so easily. It is clear that if I remain in the treatment that I am receiving I will be able to remain in a positive state. What I have learned, especially in this last year, is that through confronting my problems, talking about my problems, and accepting the help of knowledgeable support I can overcome any obstacle.”
This is also an opportunity for the system to recognize its own flaws. This is not just about Alan Benton, nor is it just about Derek Birch. Birch is merely one of countless people who have experienced events of injustice on Ontario, and have fallen through the cracks. Birch claims he believes in the system, as he has shown though years of hurling myself again the brick wall of justice, while attempting to pursue this issue. Working within the system, only to face the gaps, incongruities and flaws in the system which have prevented Birch from having his day in court against Benton.
We need to correct the flaws in the system that allow for such corruption to continue, and make the system better for Derek Birch, and all those like him who have experience the corruption that the loopholes in the laws allow. This can only be achieved by launching an investigation into Alan Benton and the systemic cover up of his actions.
Birch asked Judge Graham, to please help him to achieve closure for the harm done, by acknowledging that the only fair outcome to this would be an absolute discharge to the charges Derek Birch is facing, and to order an investigation into Alan Benton, and the cover-up of Toronto Police corruption, so that he may finally let go, sue for damages, and move on with his life in peace. “I deserve compensation for damages, not incarceration for striving to be heard” says Birch.
In the end, Judge Graham told the court that he was not going to acknowledge the crimes of Alan Benton, and since Birch “clearly have no remorse for contacting Alan Benton” [sic], Judge Graham sentenced Birch to 3 years suspended sentence. This means a criminal record for Birch, and Alan Benton still gets away with his criminal behaviour. Birch is not allowed to ever contact Alan Benton again, which means Benton is protected even further. The attacks on my human rights prove that I am not even being treated like a person.
Judge Graham has proven himself to be biased, has violated Derek Birch’s human rights even further, and by finding Birch guilty has set a precedent that the law does not apply equally to everyone. This is not law in Canada. Judge Graham should be disbarred as his biased attitude proves that he is not qualified to be a judge. Apparently, human rights in Canada are merely a nice idea, and don’t actually mean anything.
