TORONTO -- An increasingly messy disciplinary battle that has ensnared Ontario's brusque top cop and his highly regarded lawyer moves to the courts Monday amid recriminations of political interference, judicial intimidation and personal animosities.
Two senior officers charged with misconduct by Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino are asking Divisional Court to ensure the long-running and vitriolic disciplinary hearing he initiated proceeds.
Fantino, who through his lawyer blasted the adjudicator for potential bias and tried unsuccessfully to force him to step aside, wants the Police Services Act hearing put on hold until the courts decide on the recusal motion.
For their part, the two officers argue Fantino is trying to avoid further grilling about his role in their police act charges by taking the adjudicator issue to court.
"The applicant's timing in requesting that Justice (Leonard) Montgomery recuse himself gives rise to a reasonable perception that (Fantino) is attempting to interrupt his ongoing cross-examination," their court application states.
Lawyer Brian Gover, who was prosecuting the officers and acting for Fantino, raised eyebrows earlier this month when he said the provincial government supported the recusal request and would back a court challenge if Montgomery refused to step aside.
Amid questions about political interference in a quasi-legal hearing, attorney General Chris Bentley and his ministry immediately denied having made any such decision.
Gover, an experienced advocate and former Crown prosecutor, is standing by his contention the attorney general both wanted Montgomery gone and had decided it would back an appeal to the courts to force him to do so.
His comments were made in good faith and on a "clear understanding" of the attorney general's position based on conversations with senior government lawyers, Gover said.
If that's true, Montgomery said, the "conflict-of-interest issues are endless."
During aggressive cross-examination in October, Fantino appeared to change his testimony, raising questions about whether he had been tipped during a lunch break to apparent discrepancies in his evidence.
"It's upsetting and it's something I'll have to deal with when I come to do my thing," Montgomery said when lawyer Julian Falconer raised the issue.
Gover called that an attack on Fantino's integrity, and described Montgomery's remarks as "inflammatory and highly prejudicial allegations" against the police commissioner.
If Montgomery didn't step down voluntarily, Gover said he would ask the courts to force him to do so.
In insisting he had no reason to recuse himself, Montgomery, a retired judge with 33 years on the bench, slammed Gover's comments as "shocking," "highly improper" and threatening.
"You have to really wonder why they were made," Montgomery said.
"These comments considered in their totality amount to an attempt to pressure and to intimidate a judicial officer."
Supt. Ken MacDonald and Insp. Alison Jevons were senior members of the unit that investigates allegations of provincial police wrongdoing.
Fantino charged them with neglect of duty relating to their probe into a complaint about another officer caught up in a domestic dispute.
Falconer has argued -- and Fantino has denied -- the charges were a petty personal reprisal because the commissioner believed MacDonald had leaked information about the police force and also wanted to appease the police union.
Falconer has been trying to get Montgomery to throw out the charges as an abuse of process.
