Prominent Toronto defence lawyer Marie Henein is calling on the government to release a report into how crown attorneys mishandled police misconduct allegations in a Brampton drug case that ended up with criminal lawyer Leora Shemesh in court facing charges.The Public Prosecution Service of Canada late Wednesday announced a review had been completed which identified several “structural, educational and process-related issues” in the matter, and that steps had been taken to address them “on a national basis.” The PPSC did not make that review public.“This is not, nor should it be, the stuff of secret inquiry or immune from scrutiny. The PPSC is a publicly funded body with clear obligations to the public,” Henein wrote in an email to the Star on Thursday.“It is impossible for the public to know the nature of the problems investigated and how meaningful or sufficient the recommendations without meaningful disclosure of the report.”Last summer, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) launched the internal probe after Henein, who was representing Shemesh, alleged federal prosecutors covered up for a lying officer in one of Shemesh’s drug cases in Brampton, and instead charged her with perjury and attempt to obstruct justice.The Crown alleged Shemesh claimed she had a nanny cam video of a Peel police officer stealing money from her client, and then allegedly perjured herself by denying it when compelled to testify in court. The Crown alleged that delayed or impacted other proceedings.After grilling prosecutors Robert Johnston, Surinder Aujla and Lois McKenzie about the way they handled the officer’s ultimate confession that he had stolen money, Henein brought an abuse of process pretrial motion asking the judge to stay Shemesh’s charges because her constitutional rights had been violated.Instead, the Crown withdrew the charges laid in 2015 against Shemesh, saying there was no reasonable prospect ...
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