GuelphToday received the following letter from Michael Douglas, who believes a convicted Guelph police officer deserves to lose his job.
Re: Const. Cory McArthur's ongoing discipline hearing.
The tax payers of Guelph have been and continue to be, forced to reward this due process convicted felon in the aggregate, of roughly one million dollars since the commencement of his paid leave.
We have effectively been shut out and silenced in the process of determining his fate with the GPS. Irrespective of the outcome vis a vis a disciplinary decision on his quest to remain on the force, he will no doubt be paid a handsome annual retirement pension for the remainder of his life. His entitlement to due process in the scheduling of protracted disciplinary hearings has generously enabled him to run out the clock in order to attain full pension eligibility.
It is salient to acknowledge here that in the ongoing employment/disciplinary process that has been playing out for several years, the GPS does not wish to have PC McArthur returned to active duty on the force, while by sharp contrast, the Guelph Police Association maintains that PC McArthur, despite his adjudicated record of unprofessional police conduct detrimental to the forces reputation, deserves to be reinstated to active duty.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to surmise that this repeat offender appears to have deployed a 'defense of convenience' to defend and excuse his unlawful actions. I thought that the acronym PTSD stood for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. However in the case of the defence put forward by Mr. McArthur's defence team, any fair-minded jury of his peers should consider the actual timeline of events which in fact belies their theory of PTSD as a causal contributor to PC McArthur's actions.
The utilization of PTSD as a legal defence for PC McArthur's actions appears to be a convenient, albeit skeptical Hail Mary litigation stretch, deployed contrary to the interests of justice and an affront to the GPS Motto "To Serve and Protect."
Michael Douglas, Guelph
