'The police need to take a hard look at how they behave in court': Lawyer of Umar Zameer

Omar zamir has been found not guilty in the death of a Toronto police officer the verdict took several days for a jury to reach with more on the court process we're joined Now by n Hassan zamir's defense attorney Mr Hassan thank you so much for being with us thanks for having me there's a lot of emotions in the courtroom spilling out of the courthouse 24 hours later I'd like to asks you to reflect on this not guilty plea what it means for the case as We Know it nearly 3 years ago and what it means for your client Umar zamir well it was uh a tidal wave of relief um that we felt in that courtroom when the uh not guilty verdict was was read out Mr zamir and his family who have been by his side from day one um they they've been feeling all kinds of emotions over the past three years um and they just felt a real sense of relief but you know they they're not celebrating um they continue to feel awful for the the the poe officer and his family who are suffering and continuing to suffer for the loss of of what I understand was a was an honorable and good police officer so the zamir family continues to feel terribly for them um but they're happy that um they will have their lives back and uh that Mr zamir um has been deemed and found not guilty uh by a jury and he can um go back to doing what he should be doing which is playing with his young kids and uh um building a life in Canada here you know having been in that courtroom when the verdict coming in as I mentioned so much emotion coming from that courtroom as this verdict was given Justice and Malloy turned to Umar she told him he's a free man and she apologized for what he's been through as a how often do you hear a judge saying those words you hear it every now and then uh words of empathy or sympathy from the judge once the case is over uh and I think it's important to emphasize that um Justice Malloy certainly didn't put her thumb on the scale at all uh during the proceeding as as she shouldn't uh she was very judicial throughout the the proceedings but when it was all over and the jury had spoken she she did uh um say those words and and they were they seemed heartfelt and I think it meant a lot to Mr zamir and the zamir family during this trial we learned so much information that we didn't have nearly three years ago when all of this happened and you said that when you first took this case there was a lot of hatred directed towards your client what did you mean by this well there was a lot of hatred directed towards my client you saw it on the internet you saw it on social media people were calling him a terrorist there's all kinds of racist innuendo uh in in that commentary three years ago um I was also getting hate mail for having the audacity to take on this case I've got emails uh wishing that uh my my children get run over uh which was uh disturbing and unfortunate to read but I I don't actually blame those people the most uh the people I I blame the most are the the politicians who knew better who sounded off about this case who presumed guilt uh even though they knew nothing about the case and for the police for feeding a false narrative to the public back when they controlled the narrative and we nobody uh was in a position to challenge their inaccurate narrative back then um the difference between then and now is that Canadians now know the truth truth came out during the course of a a lengthy a trial uh and now Canadians were able to see quite quickly long before the guilty not guilty verdict came out long before that Canadians who are following the trial were able to see that this was not some kind of intentional act this was a young family who was doing nothing wrong uh who were were approached by plane clo officers aggressively late at night they tried to leave they were boxed in they were scared and I've been my email inbox has been inundated from messages from people across the country who say my deepest sympathies for what this poor family has gone through I would have done the exact same thing in that situation and what happened was a horrific horrific accident um no there are no winners here but Mr zamir is is clearly not a a criminal and I'm glad uh that a jury of 12 hardworking Canadians uh were able to see that you know there was a lot of information currently right now on the details that police provided that night there was also a moment during this trial that I want to take you back to it was your line of questioning with Ida shik the wife of Umar zamir where she said that she felt betrayed by the police that she was cooperating and that when she went home she heard the information that police provided to the public can you touch on that and how the family felt about the information that was provided to media and to the public nearly 3 years ago that day yeah so happy to a little bit of context is is important here so Mr zamir and and Ida shake they they they thought they were under attack they they thought that when they first saw the plane Clos officers they thought okay is this they asking for money is this a robbery is this maybe a carjacking when that that unmarked police van cut them off when they tried to leave they thought it was something much much more Sinister and so Mr zamir then reversed and go forward and not knowing that the officer had had fallen into to the ground in the melee and he didn't see him as he drove forward and they had no idea no idea that these um plane Clos folks on foot and in that van that they were police officers it was only after they were um you know rammed from behind and extracted from their car at gunpoint even then they didn't know they were dealing with police um subsequently uh the officers who arrested them and detained them identified themselves as police and then they started to see uniform officers and Mr zamir began talking to officers right away on the scene long before he was able to speak with a lawyer and and explaining we had no idea what was going on we were scared we didn't know they were police now then Ida gets taken to the hospital after that scene she's in the hospital all night the reason she's in the hospital is they've just been rare Ed and she's 8 months pregnant um and so she was taken to the hospital to check on the baby there's a police um escort who's waiting outside her Hospital door all night and then the next morning gets taken to the police station where they interview her and she wants the police to know the truth so she gives a detailed police interview that quite frankly is almost exactly uh what she testified to at trial she wanted the police to know right away what happened what a what a horrific tragic misunderstanding this had all been um but then she goes home uh after uh giving that statement after having gone through this traumatic event she's got her 2-year-old uh with her he hasn't eaten he's got a full diaper and she still gives this statement to the police and then she goes home and she turns on the the news and uh the police are making statements in public portraying her husband as some kind of horrible terrorist and she felt betrayed by that and who wouldn't feel betrayed In Her Shoes you know the police chief holding a press conference following that verdict outside he did not take any questions from media and a big one we had was about the information that was provided that night but also the testimony of the three police officers and their approach that night here you touched on this briefly during your press conference but what changes would you like to be made when it comes to how plane closed police officers uh approach civilians yeah I I think you know the the police they do have regulations and best practices and policies on on how plane closed police officers are supposed to behave um some of those are are pretty good but I I think also they can be improved in a number of ways but I also think that the police need to know that they should be following their policies and protocols and not and not um bend the rules whenever they feel like it but even more important than than reform of how plain close officers behave when interacting with members of the public I I do think the police need to take a hard look at at um how they behave in court and um the the uh TPA president uh congratulated all of the officers who took the stand in this case yeah some of them should be congratulated for telling the truth but some of them should be reprimanded and disciplined for lying lying under own lying to the Canadian public lying to the jury and um unfortunately I uh I am not going to be holding my breath to to see that type of accountability listen I know it's early days this verdict just came in and I can appreciate for the family it's been a difficult nearly three years here uh three years any idea of what comes next for Mr zamir and whether or not he wants to pursue a civil lawsuit so we haven't talked about that yet um I I I want I told him to go home hug his kids uh his two youngest he has never hugged them as a as a fully free man yet because they were born while all this was was going on um so he and his wife and his his mom and his sister and their family and his extended family they got to take a little bit of time um to to get back to normal life I'm not ruling anything out we're not ruling anything out but I I don't think the police and the administration of justice need to wait for us to do anything to start start taking a hard look at uh what lessons they can draw uh from this case from this investigation uh to hopefully uh make all of us as Canadians uh feel more trust in the system going forward what about an appeal if the crown did seek to appeal and I know that's a question for the crown uh but you said yesterday that it would probably be for the wrong reasons what did you mean by that I I don't I didn't know I said for the wrong reasons I I said that there are all kinds of reasons U why the crown chooses or doesn't choose to to uh pursue an appeal uh sometimes it's for purely legal reasons sometimes it's for reasons that are extraneous to the legal analysis and and I don't know if an appeal will be pursued um if it is we'll be here ready wait to respond um but I I'm optimistic that um once um temperatures cool and someone looks at this case the uh dispassion uh that is uh required by the Crown Attorney's office um I think they will uh come to realize that this was the right result there was a just result and that an appeal is neither necessary nor in the interest of Justice one last question Mr Hassan and this is uh a personal one for you here I've it's really rare that you see an entire legal community so tuned into a specific trial and have so many opinions about um the expected outcome here on a personal note it sounded like your relationship with Umar zamir went beyond simply a lawyer representing a client he called you his angels can you talk a little bit about the relationship and why you wanted to take on this case well look as a criminal defense lawyer um you you are uh in a position where you get to be a person's Champion when they are dealing with the most difficult part of their life and you might be the only person in their Corner other than their family um and they've got the entire apparatus of the State uh the police the Crown Attorneys office government often times public opinion bearing down upon them and you have to be their champion and and look there there are I care about all of my cases I have many clients who I find deeply deeply sympathetic even those who have made mistakes um but I will say that I have over the course of these three years I have come to believe that Not only was Mr an innocent man he's also a good person and uh yeah I I did feel very emotionally invested in this case Okay Nar Hassan the lawyer for Omar zamir thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us thanks for having me

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Length: 13min 44sec (824 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2024