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Ex-Ontario AG Bryant questioned in death of cyclist

Hard to say what....

Any of our reactions would be if someone collides with your car and then at some point tries to to get at you through the window. Your intial reaction is trying to get away from this maniac especially with your your wife in there as well.

To be honest with you, the cyclist sounds like he was acting like a idiot and hell bent at getting at Bryant and probably would have assaulted him. And it sounds like he had a history of being agressive towards people on the streets. So basically, he was something of a bully.

And in the end, his reckless and dangerous behaviour got him killed. There should be a lesson in there somewhere but people are going to say that this poor guy was completely innocent and dragged to his death by a murderer. Whatever.

I of course, need more info but it sure sounds like the cyclist just completely instigated the whole thing and it probably wasn't the first time he's gone after someone in a car... Sounds like he was a ticking time bomb.

And this reminds me of something I read a few years back in the Now, I think? Basically there were a group of cyclists celebrating the aniversity of one of their friends killed at an intersection. So what do they do?

They wander into the middle of the intersection with their parade of bikes, unannounced and completely causing chaos, take over the streets so that they could hold hands, leave some flowers and mourn all the while holding everyone there hostage.

It was sheer lunacy, was dangerous and the person who wrote the article at the time, was screaming for justice for cyclists, cursing people in cars and demanding that they had the right to just take over the street and have their vigil.

There are too many people out there now, drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, women pushing strollers, kids on skateboards and people using their motorized wheelchairs as weapons, that think the entire world is their personal playground and you're in their way....
 
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Michael Bryant joins top law firm as adviser
Former attorney general, facing criminal charges from car accident that killed bike courier, will work with Ogilvy Renault's energy law team in Toronto
Robert Benzie
Queen's Park Bureau Chief
Published On Sat Dec 05 2009Ehttp://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/734781--michael-bryant-joins-top-law-firm-as-adviser?bn=1

Former attorney general Michael Bryant, who is facing criminal charges stemming from a car accident that killed a cyclist last summer, has quietly begun work at a prestigious law firm, the Star has learned.

Bryant, who was also aboriginal affairs minister and economic development minister in Premier Dalton McGuinty's government, started this week at Ogilvy Renault as a full-time special adviser.

John West, senior partner at Ogilvy Renault's Toronto office, said Bryant is working with the firm's energy law team.

"Michael is a person we believe brings a lot of value to the table. We recognize that in some quarters it could potentially be viewed as controversial ... it's just a human tragedy all around," West said Friday.

"But, as lawyers, we believe in the rule of law ... and that means we believe first of all in the presumption of innocence and Michael is entitled to the same treatment and respect that you and I are.

"The fact that he's a former cabinet minister doesn't mean that he gets lesser treatment, it means he's entitled to the same treatment that all of us are ... and Michael is equally entitled to earn a living."

West said Bryant's expertise in matters involving first nations, energy policy, and economic development would be invaluable to one of Canada's top law firms.

"We looked at it from the perspective of bringing added value to Ogilvy Renault and its clients," he said, declining to say how much Bryant would be paid.

Bryant, who resigned from McGuinty's cabinet in May, was the $300,000-a-year CEO of Invest Toronto at the time of the incident on Aug. 30 that left bike courier Darcy Allan Sheppard, 33, dead on Bloor Street West.

Following a collision with Bryant's 1995 Saab, Sheppard was dragged along Bloor just east of Avenue Road. The father of four died at the scene.

Bryant, who had been out for dinner with his wife, Susan Abramovitch, to celebrate their anniversary, was charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing death.

He has maintained his innocence and his case is slowly working its way through the courts.

Since the tragedy, Bryant, who stepped down from Invest Toronto in September, has kept a low profile. He was unavailable for comment Friday.

Prior to entering politics in 1999, the Harvard and Osgoode Hall-educated Bryant was a commercial litigator at McCarthy Tetrault. At Queen's Park, he was known as an activist minister and a savvy communicator. During his tenure, he banned pit bulls, closed numerous marijuana grow operations and cracked down on street racing.
 
I saw him taking the subway up to Yonge/Eg. They're putting his life on hold by continuing to push the date forward, for what? I don't get it.
 
origin said:
I saw him taking the subway up to Yonge/Eg. They're putting his life on hold by continuing to push the date forward, for what? I don't get it.
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For what? I think it was for killing a man with his car in broad daylight.

A new, high-profile appointment to Ogilvy Renault hardly sounds like his life is on hold. It's hard to feel sorry for a man whose reaction to killing someone on the street is to immediately hire a PR firm.
 
TKTKTK said:
For what? I think it was for killing a man with his car in broad daylight.

A new, high-profile appointment to Ogilvy Renault hardly sounds like his life is on hold. It's hard to feel sorry for a man whose reaction to killing someone on the street is to immediately hire a PR firm.
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How about Maple Leaf foods killing 29 people and still counting, they too hired a PR firm and never even had an inquiry. It seems to be the trend today get into some trouble and get yourself a spin doctor.
 
Maggie said:
How about Maple Leaf foods killing 29 people and still counting, they too hired a PR firm and never even had an inquiry. It seems to be the trend today get into some trouble and get yourself a spin doctor.
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Not sure why someone would cite Maple Leaf Foods' conduct as an appropriate precedent, but I'm also of the opinion that Bryant would not have been charged (at least the homicide charge) if he weren't Michael Bryant. In any event, he ain't going down for homicide, and probably ain't going down at all.
 
voxpopulicosmicum said:
Not sure why someone would cite Maple Leaf Foods' conduct as an appropriate precedent, but I'm also of the opinion that Bryant would not have been charged (at least the homicide charge) if he weren't Michael Bryant. In any event, he ain't going down for homicide, and probably ain't going down at all.
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Really? Is it because you think he's being used as an example to show that politicians aren't above the law? Or is it something about him personally that justice is seeking revenge on?

I think if it were anyone else charges would have been laid, high-profile legal positions would not have been proffered, and the media would have stopped talking about it ages ago.
 
TKTKTK said:
Really? Is it because you think he's being used as an example to show that politicians aren't above the law? Or is it something about him personally that justice is seeking revenge on?

I think if it were anyone else charges would have been laid, high-profile legal positions would not have been proffered, and the media would have stopped talking about it ages ago.
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All of my views on this are based on grainy video footage and 3rd-hand accounts; I certainly wouldn't want to be on Bryant's jury.

My take on it is that Bryant probably could have de-escalated the situation at some point, but that ultimately a court will determine that Darcy Sheppard's own recklessness was the greatest single contributing factor in his death.

But even if that weren't the case, I believe that Toronto cops generally dislike cyclists, poor people, crazy people, first nations people and people with criminal records, at least relative to non-cyclists, etc. With five strikes against him and with presumably credible accounts about his behaviour before and during the incident that led to his death, I think it is remarkable that the investigation yielded charges at all. I can only surmise that, because Bryant is who he is, the police felt compelled to charge him but fully expect him not to be convicted.

Again, I wasn't there and I don't "know" what happened. But that's my feeling about how it will all turn out.

Also, it is my hunch that Ogilvy would not have hired him without reaching the same conclusion.

Bryant will make a political comeback. Unfortunately, I bet he will appeal to a large segment of the knuckle-dragging suburbanites who long for their own chance to kill an uppity cyclist.
 
Not sure what.....

What the alternative would have been for Bryant to have done in this scenerio. Drive off with a lunactic trying to climb through your window and bash your head in, with your wife present or stay put and the lunatic still climbs through your window and bashes your face in. What exactly was Bryant suppose to have done in this situation?

I'll tell you exactly what most of us would have done. We either would have stopped the car and struggled with a maniac hell bent on assualting us or we would have driven off, trying to get away. This reckless, idiot maniac forced a series of events through his actions to unfold that resulted in his death.
 
tkip said:
What the alternative would have been for Bryant to have done in this scenerio. Drive off with a lunactic trying to climb through your window and bash your head in, with your wife present or stay put and the lunatic still climbs through your window and bashes your face in. What exactly was Bryant suppose to have done in this situation?

I'll tell you exactly what most of us would have done. We either would have stopped the car and struggled with a maniac hell bent on assualting us or we would have driven off, trying to get away. This reckless, idiot maniac forced a series of events through his actions to unfold that resulted in his death.
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Bryant ran the guy down with his car before the whole grabbing the car thing even started
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFISP_PrhFo&annotation_id=annotation_55150&feature=iv
 
I was....

Under the impression that the cyclist collided with his car which led to the the encounter that then became violent. I haven't watched the video clip and really have no desire to do so. It still sounds as though this guy was a loose canon.
 
tkip said:
Under the impression that the cyclist collided with his car which led to the the encounter that then became violent. I haven't watched the video clip and really have no desire to do so. It still sounds as though this guy was a loose canon.
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That's the magic of a PR firm, I suppose.

The real test at Bryant's trial will be to prove that at no time did he reasonably have the ability to stop his car and deescalate the situation, preventing a death. The cyclist's character has nothing to do with this.
 
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