UWO Student’s Charges Stayed…

By: Ryan Venables · January 27, 2010 · Filed Under Civil Rights, Criminal Law, Ethics, Legal Reform · 3 Comments 

In an interesting twist, the Crown has decided to stay all charges against fourth year UWO student Irnes Zeljkovic.

Zeljkovic’s incident involving UWO Campus and London Police made national headlines late last year when he was arrested in what some described as nothing more than police brutality.  I qualified the arrest both here and on CFRB 1010’s Jim Richard’s Show by saying that I thought all aspects minus the baton strikes were acceptable.

Although no details were released about what transpired in court, Zeljkovic’s lawyer, Phillip Millar of Cohen Highley plans on talking with UWO officials first about his client’s reinstatement and then one can only assume about a potential settlement regarding the arrest.

Also last year, UWO officials hired former OPP Commissioner Gwen Boniface to investigate the incident.  To date, no information has been release with respect to her independent investigation.

Post tags: , , , , , , , ,

Former OPP Commish to Review UWO Arrest…

By: Ryan Venables · November 2, 2009 · Filed Under Civil Rights, Criminal Law, Legal Reform · Add Comment 

The University of Western Ontario has hired former Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner and lawyer Gwen Boniface to review the violent arrest of Irnes Zeljkovic according to a London Free Press article and from UWO Communications.

The arrest garnered an overwhelming response from the students at UWO and media alike:

(This version of the video was used because the original has been flagged for violence and there are issues posting it here.  For an opportunity to see the original, go to the link at the bottom of this post for my original article).

The review seeks to answer the following questions:

- Whether the situation was preventable.

- The training and resources available to campus police.

- Procedures for securing areas where an incident is occurring.

- Campus police co-ordination with London police.

It is also expected that students will be gathering at 4 p.m. at the University Community Centre once again to protest the treatment of Zeljkovic.

It has also been revealed that the London Police Service is conducting it’s own review into the arrest.

For a review of my original take of this article see this Law Is Cool article.

Post tags: , , , , , ,