Canadian True Crime Podcast prepared a comprehensive 6-part series on the killing of Darcy Allan Sheppard by former Attorney General Michael Bryant
The series not only examines the evidence but the media coverage and the role of crisis public relations firm Navigator. You will discover new facts about the case that were kept from you and you will find that what you may have thought happened was merely a creation of a public relations firm.
This case is not only a failure of the justice system but also a failure of the media.
On August 31, 2009 former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant intentionally attacked and killed Metis bike messenger Darcy Allan Sheppard in a road rage attack. Bryant was charged with criminal negligence causing death & dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death.
Overwhelming direct evidence clearly demonstrated Michael Bryant’s responsibility for this killing. The Police collision reconstruction report clearly pointed to Michael Bryant’s guilt. Bryant’s actions were captured on surveillance video and witnessed by several people, and subject to forensic evidence.
Nine months after Michael Bryant killed Darcy Allan Sheppard, independent prosecutor Richard Peck withdrew all charges against his colleague. He chose to make a detailed presentation outlining his reasons for withdrawing the charges which mainly involved unreasonably dehumanizing and vilifying the victim. Peck would rely on Bryant’s own version of the events to withdraw the charges as he left out all of the evidence demonstrating Bryant’s guilt.
Think of any major trial that clearly demonstrated the guilt of the defendant and then think of the impact on the verdict if the prosecutor failed to present or hid all of the most damning evidence. In every single case the defendant would be acquitted. That is what the prosecutor, Richard Peck accomplished.
The following is a list of evidence that Richard Peck failed to present during his justification for withdrawing charges.
Michael Bryant’s intentional attack and killing of Darcy Allan Sheppard was captured on video. Richard Peck did not show the video during his presentation. The video is here:
here:
The police reconstruction report looked at all of the evidence including witness and forensic evidence. The report clearly stated that Sheppard’s hands were on his handle bars at all times as he passed Bryant and that forensic evidence showed that Sheppard at no time touched Bryant’s steering wheel. Peck left out this damming evidence and instead introduced the possibility that the opposite could have happened. The police reconstruction report can be viewed here:
There were many eye witnesses to Bryant’s actions. Two witnesses were close enough to touch Bryant’s car. Both of these witnesses clearly stated that Michael Bryant intentionally attacked Darcy Allan Sheppard. Both of these witnesses made recorded 911 calls and sat for detailed video interviews with police only hours after Bryant killed Sheppard. Richard Peck kept all of their evidence and damning testimony out of the courtroom on May 25, 2010. Both of these witnesses stated to me that there was no indication that Bryant’s car stalled and during their video interviews they said Bryant’s car made no unusual sounds. Despite this direct evidence Richard Peck introduced the unbelievable possibility that Michael Bryant’s car stalled multiple times based solely on Bryant’s claims after Bryant and his lawyer were shown all of the evidence against him. Peck failed to note that six or seven months later Bryant could easily fit his claims around the known evidence revealed to him. Despite multiple attempts by these witnesses to contact Richard Peck and his Ontario agent Mark Sandler, Peck and Sandler failed to interview these witnesses.
The witness 911 calls are here:
Witness 9.12:
Witness 9.13:
The police video interviews of these witnesses are here:
Witness 9.12:
Witness 9:13:
A video summary of the 911 calls and police interviews are here:
Many construction workers witnessed Michael Bryant’s road rage attack. They spoke to various media outlets to explain what they witnessed. Two of the construction workers spoke on video clearly condemning Michael Bryant’s road rage attack and killing of Darcy Allan Sheppard. In court Peck only mentioned their evidence to dismiss all of it because he claimed their attempt at estimating the speed of Bryant’s car was inaccurate.
Video of the construction workers’ evidence is here:
As stated in the police reconstruction report multiple witnesses stated that Darcy Allan Sheppard yelled to the bystanders and onlookers, “You are all witnesses to this!” He wanted them to tell everyone what they saw. Richard Peck made sure they didn’t.
A video interview of one of these witnesses is here:
Michael Bryant attacked and killed Darcy Allan Sheppard on what was Bryant’s twelfth wedding anniversary. During his explanation for withdrawing the charges against his colleague, Richard Peck portrayed this anniversary as a joyful day of celebration but as Bryant himself would reveal it was nothing joyful and was in fact stressful and argumentative. Bryant’s own words reveal that the anniversary could have played an important role in his road rage behaviour but Peck failed to purse or reveal this possibility.
Michael Bryant’s own description of his troubled anniversary is here:
During his presentation on May 25, 2010 Richard Peck cherry picked evidence, included inadmissible evidence and omitted damning evidence to justify withdrawing the charges against his fellow BC bred lawyer Michael Bryant. The same could be accomplished in every single trial ever conducted if the prosecutor acted in a similar manner.
OPEN LETTER TO RICHARD PECK, Q.C., SPECIAL PROSECUTOR,
AND MARK SANDLER, ASSOCIATE PROSECUTOR,
IN THE MATTER OF HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN v. MICHAEL JAMES BRYANT,
ON THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF A DECISION DELIVERED
IN THE ONTARIO COURT OF JUSTICE
BEFORE THE LATE MR. JUSTICE P. BENTLEY ON 25 MAY 2010
25 May 2020
Dear Sirs:
I am writing in reply to your letter of April 20, 2015, sent electronically to Wayne Scott, my friend and colleague in the pursuit of justice for my late son, Darcy Allan Sheppard.
Mr. Scott has for several years faced serious health challenges that made it difficult, now impossible, for him to respect your letter with a reply. He has given me permission to reply in his place. I do so not on his behalf but my own. I, and only I, am responsible and accountable for what follows.
On August 31, 2009, just before ten o’clock in the evening, former Attorney General, Michael Bryant rapidly accelerated his black Saab 900 SE convertible into Darcy Allan Sheppard and his bicycle, knocking Sheppard on to the hood of the car, propelling him along Bloor Street and then on to the road, leaving a twenty-seven-foot scrape on the road. Sheppard who was likely filled with adrenalin and shock pushed himself up from the ground with his bloodied hands, slammed his backpack on to the hood of the car and pointed to the witnesses standing around. Sheppard yelled to the bystanders and onlookers, “You are all witnesses to this!”
These were Darcy Allan Sheppard’s last words before Michael Bryant killed him with his car. It was as if Darcy Allan Sheppard knew he would be unfairly portrayed as the aggressor rather than the victim. It was as if Darcy Allan Sheppard knew the justice system was stacked against him. Darcy Allan Sheppard’s last words were a cry for justice. They were a plea for witnesses to come forward and tell the truth. Darcy Allan Sheppard’s final words were a call for transparency.
Eyewitnesses 9.12 and 9.13 were the closest witnesses to Michael Bryant’s attack on Darcy Allan Sheppard. They are unique because they may be the only witnesses who saw what happened before Michael Bryant rapidly accelerated his car into Darcy Allan Sheppard. They each sat with police only a few hours after Bryant killed Sheppard. These are their previously unreleased video statements in their entirety.
This article is based on a Twitter thread. As the 10th anniversary of Michael Bryant’s killing of Darcy Alan Sheppard approaches, we will be posting more detailed articles dealing with the evidence presented in the Twitter thread
On August 31,2009 former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant killed Metis bike messenger Darcy Allan Sheppard in a road rage attack. Bryant was charged with criminal negligence causing death & dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death. Michael Bryant’s actions were captured on surveillance video and witnessed by several people, and subject to forensic evidence.
The Attorney General for Ontario brought in criminal defence attorney Richard Peck as “special prosecutor” because Michael Bryant as Attorney General of Ontario had been most prosecutors’ boss. Richard Peck was unlicensed to practice law in Ontario so he turned to Toronto criminal defence lawyer Mark Sandler as his agent. Like Michael Bryant, Richard Peck was from the Victoria BC, area. Both were from political families. Both were boxers. Both were lawyers
One month before he killed Darcy Allan Sheppard in a road rage attack, Michael Bryant told the Toronto Star “road rage is back in my life”.
In his memoir “28 Seconds” Michael Bryant admitted that the months leading up to the death of Darcy Allan Sheppard were a difficult time for him.
Friday, August 31 will be the 9th anniversary of the night Michael Bryant attacked and killed Darcy Allan Sheppard. “Eyewitnesses to a killing” is another excerpt from Jennifer Wells’ e-book, “Lost Boy: The Death of Darcy Allan Sheppard”
Let’s start with the criminal defence attorney turned “special prosecutor” who made the case in court to withdraw charges against his fellow attorney, former Attorney General of Ontario and current executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Michael Bryant.
As Richard Peck said in his address to the court, “Eyewitnesses see different things.” In a telephone interview in mid-August, Peck, a B.C. criminal lawyer appointed as special prosecutor by the Attorney General of Ontario, discussed the reliability of the witness accounts in this case. “There were quite disparate accounts of what happened from eyewitnesses or alleged eyewitnesses,” he says. “There were at least a dozen and they were quite disparate in terms of what they saw, or purported to see, the speeds, the interactions, all those types of things.” No one witness, he pointed out in his address to the court, appeared to observe the events from start to finish. Mark Sandler, a Toronto lawyer appointed counsel for the Crown in this case, was also present on the call. “As is often the case when you’ve got a reconstruction of a traffic-related matter, the eyewitness accounts are wildly at variance with each other,” Sandler says. “One has to look at more objective evidence in determining precisely what happened.”
What Peck doesn’t tell you is that the following two eyewitnesses gave consistent reports that match the surveillance videos and forensic evidence. Victoria Switzman is so close to Bryant’s car she can be seen on the surveillance video waving her arms as she screamed at Bryant to stop his attack. No other witnesses dispute the Switzmans’ account. Peck and Sandler did not interview the Switzmans’. They did not present any of the Switzmans’ eyewitness accounts in court. Instead, they paraphrased statements from witnesses who did not see anything until they HEARD Michael Bryant ram his car into Darcy Allan Sheppard, knock him on the hood of his car and scraped Sheppard’s bike at least 22 feet along the road. Sheppard was bleeding. Mark Sandler dismissed this as “moderately slight contact.” For most witnesses, the first thing they saw was Sheppard getting up off the road after Bryant attacked him with his car. Richard Peck also chose not to show the surveillance videos that captured most of Bryant’s attack on Sheppard.
Watch the surveillance video, hear the 911 calls of the eyewitnesses, and watch part of the eyewitness statements. (One day soon these unedited videos will be released in their entirety accompanied by transcripts.)
Friday August 31 will be the 9th anniversary of the day former Attorney General for Ontario and current executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Michael Bryant, attacked and killed Indigenous cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard. Over the next year I will be posting articles going through every detail of the evidence revealing never before seen video, pictures and details that special prosecutors Richard Peck and Mark Sandler chose to keep from the public.
“It’s a lovely little thing,” says Martha McOuat of her pale blue metallic scooter, a sweet Vespa 50 that she rides when the weather is warm and the pavement dry.
McOuat sounds a bit surprised to be tracked down, but she’s happy to chat, recalling as best she can the spring day four years ago when she exited her office at the Ontario Power Authority — McOuat was a senior policy analyst — only to find the scooter badly scratched on one side.
Today we call on RightsCon to honour its stated commitment to the human rights of marginalized communities by disinviting former Ontario Attorney General and recently-appointed head of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association Michael Bryant from this conference, due to his involvement in the death of a Métis man in Toronto nine years ago.
International attendees from government, civil society, the tech sector, and human rights are welcomed to Canada for RightsCon, where the recent acquittals of two white men in the deaths of two young Indigenous people mean that Indigenous justice issues are fresh in the public consciousness.
The widely-publicized case included a carefully-curated portrayal of the victim, Darcy Allan Sheppard, which included repeated references to his “troubled” life and substance use, a tactic which has been seen so often in cases involving Indigenous victims of violence, including recently Tina Fontaine and Colten Boushie.
Bryant’s recent appointment as head of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association is troubling, and would appear to run contrary to their stated mandate. We now therefore invite RightsCon to send a different message about who it invites into the shared space and what that signifies about whose human rights are valued
What was the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) thinking when it chose Michael Bryant as its new executive director and general counsel?
There was no formal statement issued by CCLA on the appointment, only a tweet January 11 stating that the organization is “thrilled” to have Bryant on board. According to Bryant, members of the board reached out to him some time in 2017 about the position. He says part of his focus will be on issues affecting people who “live on and near the streets.”
Perhaps Bryant is a credible defender of constitutional rights. He was, after all, the province’s former attorney general and is politically experienced and connected. More to the point, he understands civil rights – at least his own, which he says were egregiously violated by the Toronto police after a fatal encounter in August 2009 with my late son, Darcy Allan Sheppard, on Bloor.
The following is the first case in a series where we examine several of Richard Peck’s cases where he acted on behalf of the government as a special prosecutor. The analysis will demonstrate at the very least a perception that Peck may have a pro-accused viewpoint that may lead to a propensity to withdraw charges in cases involving police or government officials. Peck’s pro-accused bias created a perception that he was not independent when he acted as special prosecutor in case against former Ontario Attorney General, Michael Bryant.
On August 17, 1994 eight year old Mindy Tran disappeared near her home in Rutland, BC. Her body was discovered on October 11, 1994. The prime suspect in her murder was a neighbour, Shannon Murrin. He would be arrested, tried and acquitted of her murder.
The report noted that the lead investigator, RCMP Sergeant Gary Tidsbury, should have been replaced. “The downfall of this case was the integrity of the investigation.” “There were a few whose bad judgment, loss of objectivity and a failure to live up to one’s duty as a member of the RCMP contributed to the downfall of this file.”
Murrin’s defence attorney’s argued that Tidsbury investigated with tunnel vision and decided very early that Murrin was guilty.
The review team said that the integrity of the investigation came in to question as a result of a beating of Murrin by three men, “described by RCMP spokesman Cpl. Grant Learned as controlled by the police.” (“Review critical of RCMP”, Kelowna Capital News, July 18th, 2001). The men claimed they were put up to the beating by investigators, including Gary Tidsbury.
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