Pubdate: Thu, 04 May 2006
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2006, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Alan Cairns, staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?216 (CN Police)

EX-DRUGGIE COP GETS JOB BACK

A higher court has upheld an order by Ontario's police watchdog to
send a rehabilitated cocaine addict Toronto cop back to work.

The civilian panel correctly reinstated Const. Rob Kelly, a
three-member Ontario Court of Justice panel ruled in a judgment that
swept aside a Toronto Police appeal.

Superior court Justices James Carnwath, Sandra Chapnik and William
Whalen concurred with the Ontario Civilian Commission on Policing
Services (OCCOPS) ruling that Kelly's dismissal was "unduly harsh and
punitive."

Kelly's lawyer, Ken Jull, told the Toronto Sun last night that the
court decision reinforces earlier rulings that employers have a duty
to accommodate physical and mental handicaps and disabilities under
human rights law.

"That's big. That's a big point," Jull said.

"Whether you are a police officer, a lawyer, a bus driver, or a
journalist, that if you take treatment ... the employer has a duty to
accommodate you if you show you are rehabilitated."

Jull said that Kelly -- who is suspended with pay and has been working
in real estate -- is "ecstatic."

Kelly, 39, was ordered to resign or be fired last year after he
admitted twice giving an informant cocaine.

Kelly, a 16-year police veteran with a stellar record, became the
subject of an RCMP sting in November 2001 after a police informant
alleged Kelly had threatened him.

RCMP officers secretly watched as the on-duty Kelly gave the informant
more than three grams of cocaine.

Initially facing two counts of possession of cocaine for the purposes
of trafficking, Kelly pleaded guilty to two lesser charges of
possession of cocaine in March 2004.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Lawrence Seguin