Picked up in a pre-G20 police sweep back in June, police admitted within hours of his media sensationalized 'terrorist' arrest that he had nothing to do with G20 but the illegal search and seizure of his vehicle turned up a crossbow, albeit properly secured in a carrying case, so he was charged with "possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose".
Toronto police Const. Hugh Smith :
"It's lawful to have them in your possession … but with close proximity to the summit, we are going to relate it, you know, to the G20 and the safety. So there was more than enough to arrest."Exactly what "dangerous purpose" do they expect to prove here?
He has threatened no one.
He owns a crossbow because he hates guns and carries it for protection from bears on his rural property.
He was in Toronto to get his car window fixed.
He had all his remaining possessions loaded into his car because someone burnt his rural house down and he is currently rebuilding it.
At his court appearance today, the judge proclaimed the schizophrenic McCullough unfit to stand trial following his months in solitary confinement for his own protection after he was beaten up by other prisoners. The judge has ordered a third psychiatric assessment and remanded him to a psychiatric hospital.
Is this for his own good? No it isn't. At his bail hearing in August, Justice of the Peace Paul Kowarsky displayed an extraordinary lack of understanding of rural life :
"I see no sense that he had to bring all the items for the sole purpose of being in Toronto and running an errand." In denying bail, the justice added: "The inference is he carried all these items for a purpose dangerous to the public."I fail to see how yet another psychiatric assessment of McCullough will get the just ice system off the hook for persecuting an innocent man for six months.
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2 comments:
I have been at a loss trying figure out why he was arrested in the first place then I saw this picture.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/10/06/tor-g20-crossbow-trial-mccullough.html
Officer Bubbles Strikes again
Sadly our jails are full of people with mental health issues as well as those receiving ineffective legal representation. It appears that both of these realities have converged to screw over Gary McCullough.
Gary's rural property is best described as a bush lot in the middle of no where. It's not far from here where I live and all the items found in his car is what he needs to survive out there. He's trying to rebuild his shack in the bush after it was burned. About 2 weeks before the G20 Gary was beat up by some locals who took baseball bats to his car breaking the window, so I can understand why he was trying to get it fixed. Everything he owns is in that car. He's living out here in the bush to get away from all the things he can't cope with in the real world. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He needs help and getting beat up in prison is not the place for Gary.
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