[QatzelOk]

Former Ontario AG Bryant charged in cyclist's death
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 1, 2009 | 10:13 PM ET


Former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant is shown in the back of a police cruiser in Toronto on Monday night. (Tony Smyth/CBC)

The man once touted as a future premier of Canada's largest province is now facing charges involving the death of a cyclist on one of Toronto's busiest streets.

"Michael James Bryant, 43 years of age, of Toronto, is now charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death," said Toronto police Sgt. Tim Burrows at an impromptu news conference outside the headquarters of the force's traffic division.

The cyclist has been identified as Darcy Allan Sheppard, 33, of Toronto.

A former attorney general of Ontario, Bryant was released under unspecified conditions on his own recognizance. Burrows said Bryant had "absolutely not" received any preferential treatment.

Bryant will make a court appearance on Oct. 19 in the case.

Criminal negligence causing death carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, while dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death has a maximum penalty of 14 years behind bars.

rest of article

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It's amazing how easy it is to commit homicide in an propagandized industrial society.

It takes a famous person behind the wheel (or under the wheels) for it to even make the news.

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[Oxymoron]

So was he drunk or high? Or is this the case of idiot cyclists trying to own the road.

[Thunderhawk]

Loud mouthed dumbass on bike vs asshole in car.

[QatzelOk]

Well, if you read the article...

From what I've read in other sources... there was an altercation between a man in a Saab convertible (attorney-general) and a bike courier. The bike courier ended up grabbing onto the Saab drivers side and not letting go.

Cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard, 33, a father of four and aspiring comedian, died in hospital after what started as a minor run-in between him and a Saab convertible along Bloor Street West in Yorkville.

Mr. Sheppard was fatally injured after he fell from a car allegedly driven by Mr. Bryant, 43.

Mr. Sheppard had grabbed on to the outside of the open-top convertible during an argument.

So, the driver (a star candidate for premier of Ontario) plowed into the oncoming traffic lane until the bike courier hit some trees and a mailbox and fell down. And then died a few hours later.

Witnesses told reporters that the driver steered the car into the oncoming lanes, where the cyclist -- hanging from the vehicle on the curb side for about 100 metres - struck trees and a mailbox before hitting the ground.

Darcy Allan Sheppard, a bike courier, died in hospital late on Monday night.

It sounds like a scene from Quentin Tarantino or the Terminator series, and I'm sure the driver saw both of those Hollywood classics.

The 'star candidate' is being tried for homicide. The National Post article makes it sound like he actually killed the cyclist intentionally, but as manslaughter, and not premeditated homicide. Then again, the post is a tabloid and graphic violence sells. Maybe it was actually premeditated, for all the audience really knows.

I wonder - when the trial is over and the star candidate gets off with just bad publicity and the loss of some entitlement - what the bike courier's children will think about cars and yuppies and why someone would kill their daddy for riding a bike.


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[QatzelOk]

Angry cyclists stage protest

Henry Stancu
Staff Reporter



Streets in the downtown core were gridlocked as about 1,000 cyclists gathered and pedalled in honour of Darcy Allan Sheppard during this evening's rush hour.

A small group first clustered around a sidewalk shrine at a mailbox on Bloor St. W. near Bay St., where the 33-year-old courier died when he was dragged by a car Monday evening.

The mailbox was adorned with flowers, post-it notes and letters of condolence with candles on the ground and a white bike frame, sometimes seen at the site of a fatal bike accident.

...

Bloor Street is the busiest east-west artery in Toronto.

Here's a video of the Al Sheppard tragedy as covered by CTV.

And here's a one-one-one interview with the star-candidate/manslaughter suspect only months before he killed the bike courier.

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[Andres]

The bike courier ended up grabbing onto the Saab drivers side and not letting go.

Why did he end up grabbing onto a speeding car? The Bryant guy trying to scrape him off the side of the car could have done a criminal act (and I say could have because I don't have a clear idea what happened), but that doesn't mean that as presented in this thread the cyclist actions make any sense.

[QatzelOk]

Why did he end up grabbing onto a speeding car?

So far, no one really knows what happened.

So corporate media has a bit of breathing time to spin this story in a way that will continue to draw advertising dollars from car companies. They are trying to blame the fact that Al may have had a few beers, on his homicide. Notice how the lead-in story (of the link) contains a mention of recreational drugs, and how this gives a decidedly sleazy tone to this corporate newspaper's attempt at blame-the-victim. Don't forget, the board rooms of the Globe and Mail is full of the friends and associates (and clones) of the star candidate/homicide suspect.

So, the condescending, anti-poor-people message so far from commercial rich-owned media is: if you're not rich and you drink, you deserve to die at the hands of a Saab-driving yuppie.

In the meantime, Toronto plans for 1000 km of bikeways by 2012. Will the appointed city-deciders also reduce the speed of car traffic, and remove car traffic altogether from large swaths of the downtown?

Here's a link to a story about car/bike animosity and a map of TO bike accidents.

[QatzelOk]

Bryant given police list of driving dos and don'ts

By DON PEAT

Ontario's former attorney general can't be behind the wheel until his court case is resolved.

That was one of the conditions of Michael Bryant's release from Toronto Police custody Tuesday after being charged in connection with the altercation in which bike courier Darcy Sheppard was killed Monday night.

According to the release conditions obtained from the attorney general's office by the Sun yesterday, Bryant must remain in the province, notify police of any change of address or employment, and not operate any motor vehicle until the case is disposed of by the courts.

Within 48 hours of his release, Bryant had to deposit his passport with police at traffic services headquarters on Hanna Ave.

source

So the police gave him a helpful checklist of Do's and Don't's. Maybe he's only supposed to follow the instructions that are preceded by "Simon Says?"


Bryant thinks about which world-class PR firm he's going to hire to clear up this issue

Here's a list from Qatzel Ok:

1. Don't get coked out and gore cyclists with your Saab.

2. Don't think that because you inherited a star-role as a political enabler that you are entitled to kill working class people like they were flies.

3. Do start biking around downtown Toronto with an "I killed a bike courier" t-shirt on your slippery back.

[Ter]

That guy looks a lot like Jack "torture" Bauer in 24.

But yes, cyclists can be real pests on the road. And that pic with all those huggers and crybabies makes it look like a very whatshamacallit crowd.

Ter

[Thunderhawk]

Actually, he looks more like his fellow Ontario cleptocrat, Stockwell Day

(click the pic)

[QatzelOk]

cyclists can be real pests on the road

Especially when it's you who owns it, right Ter?

[Evilive]

Cyclists don't even get sidewalks were I live, they are always a few inches from being hit evertime a car speeds by. If a driver isn't paying complete attention or is DUI then its game over for the cyclist.

[QatzelOk]

^^^ And that's part of what makes the automobile so appealing.

It kills all the other tribes.

[Lensky1917]

Burrows said Bryant had "absolutely not" received any preferential treatment.

Of course not.

Nobody cares about Canadians.

[Ter]

And that's part of what makes the automobile so appealing.

Automobiles:

- have four wheels (don't fall over when stationary)
- most have a roof (handy when it rains)
- don't make you tired to make it move
- can seat several people
- are safe if operated thoughtfully
- they go "vroom-vroom"


Ter

[Thunderhawk]

^^^ And that's part of what makes the automobile so appealing.

It kills all the other tribes.

Does that mean SUVs are a family within the car tribe of superior killers?

[QatzelOk]

Does that mean SUVs are a family within the car tribe of superior killers?

They are a sub-tribe.

But cars effectively make all other forms of transportation dangerous, deadly, and unpleasant.

Ter likes them because they keep him dry. So would an aircraft carrier.

...

Ex-Ont. attorney general phoned PR firm after fatal collision
Victim in bizarre Toronto accident had Alberta roots
By Allison Hanes, National Post; Canwest News Service, with files from Laura Drake, Edmonton JournalSeptember 3, 2009

While being questioned here by police Tuesday in the bizarre death of a cyclist, it is now evident that among the first calls former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant made after summoning his lawyer was to a blue-chip public relations firm.

By the time he emerged hours later, facing charges of criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, Bryant's image was firmly in hand by Navigator Ltd.
...
Bryant was returning from celebrating his 12th wedding anniversary with his wife Susan Abramovitch, an entertainment lawyer,

...

So his second call - after his lawyer - was to a PR firm. It was after speaking to them that he strategically went to the media and "expressed his regrets to Mr. Bryant's family." How sincere. I wonder how many bottles of fake tears he was provided with.
And I love that his wife is "an entertainment lawyer." Sounds like a useful service she provides. It's too bad he's not entertaining in any way.

[Oxymoron]

Dear Sir.

We had our encounter on Bedford Avenue this afternoon, just south of Division. I was the petite brunette in a white sundress, riding a red road bike in the rain; you were the Hasidic gentleman (and I use the term loosely) in a blue SUV who came up on my back wheel, honking, and attempted to run me out of the bike lane before swerving directly in front of me and pulling up to the curb ahead.

You refused to roll down your window and talk to me after this incident, leaving me to shout, "That's against the law" at the rain-streaked glass and then continue home. And while it *is* against the law -- both the laws that govern New York City drivers, and also those that govern general human decency -- what I really wanted to say to you was simultaneously less accusatory and more important. This is it.

I know that the bike lanes aren't great. You may not believe it, but cyclists don't like riding next to you anymore than you like sharing the road with us. Given the choice between inhaling your exhaust and pedaling blithely down a forested greenway, I'd always take the latter.

I also know that presence of cyclists on busy streets can make driving in the city even more nerve-wracking than usual, and that some of us antagonize the shit out of drivers by disobeying traffic laws, failing to signal, and generally acting like we own the road (I am not one of these, but that is beside the point). And I completely understand if, at this point, you start hyperventilating at the mere sight of a bike with which you have to share the road. I empathize; I have a car, too. It sucks. I know.

Nevertheless, we can't all live in Amsterdam, and the frustrations of sharing the road with me do not change the facts: You are in a car, and I am not. You are protected from collisions by airbags, fenders, and a steel cage; I'm not. You are piloting a one-ton pile of steel; I am piloting something that weighs as much as a dog. (Not even a big dog -- we're talking Welsh Corgi, here.)

And if your frustrations at sharing the road get the better of you, and you want to get in a fight with me, sir, there is no doubt whatsoever that you will win.

You'll win... and, in all likelihood, I'll be dead.

This is what I wanted to say to you: You may not like cyclists, and that's fine. But you have a responsibility to the human race, and I don't cease to exist the second I step off my bike. I am someone's wife. I am someone's sister. I am someone's daughter.

And if you have any of those things -- a spouse, a sibling, a child -- do me this favor.

Picture them.

Imagine yourself on your way to meet your wife for lunch; imagine yourself waiting for your daughter to come home from school.

Now, imagine getting a phone call, hearing the voice on the other end telling you that that person -- the person you love -- is dead, because some asshole in an Audi thought her life was less important than waiting another five seconds to park his car.

This has been a public service announcement from the U.S. Department of Please Don't Kill Other Human Beings.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/ny ... 24472.html

[QatzelOk]

And if your frustrations at sharing the road get the better of you, and you want to get in a fight with me, sir, there is no doubt whatsoever that you will win.

You'll win... and, in all likelihood, I'll be dead.

Cyclists are the Palestinians of vehicles, aren't they.

[Godstud]

Drunk cyclist incites road rage driver which results in cyclists death is how the title of the article should read. Grabbing onto a moving vehicle while on a bicycle is practically suicidal to begin with. I pity only the people who have to suffer the loss, but I think the cyclist is 50/50 as far as blame for his death goes. Drunk driving while riding a bicycle may not kill others but you sure can mess yourself up handily. I doubt he would have grabbed onto the moving vehicle in the first place, if he'd been sober.

Many cyclists I've seen in cities act like fucking retards. I've even been cut off while driving, by a cyclist who thought he somehow could make a left turn in front of my car. He even went so far as to flip me off as my car's tires screeched while avoided hitting him. I was honestly too shocked to even respond in kind. I'm honestly surprised there aren't more cycle/car incidents.

Cyclists always need to remember that they are about 2000 lbs lighter and much squishier than most automobiles. Even cyclist vs Smartcar is a losing fight.

I think there needs to be more educating of cyclists when it comes to safety, and even possibly licensing bicycle couriers. A safety course would go a long ways. Pedal Pushers, an old educational thing for young cyclists probably saved a lot of young kids from injury. I'm not sure if that exists anymore or not...

Lensky1917, no one gives a damn about Americans who have nothing intelligent to say either, Troll.