Brigadier Remembered

Dan Sandor, recent Conservative candidate in Scarborough Centre, is leading the fight to protect police enforcement animals with a new law he calls "Brigadier's Law".

You may remember Brigadier, the 8-year-old prize-winning Belgian cross, who worked in the Mounted Unit of Toronto Police until he was killed by an erratic driver in 2006 at Lawrence and Kingston Road. Being 16 hands high, "Brig", the "Gentle Giant", weighed 1500 lbs but was no match for a speeding car.

According to police, on February 24, 2006, Brigadier and his rider, PC Kevin Bradfield, were on Community Patrol in the West Hill area, when their attention was drawn to a driver stopped at the former drive-through ATM machine at TD Canada Trust. The driver was reportedly yelling and screaming at the driver in front of him. The enraged driver sped away when approached by the mounted unit, but then made a u-turn, and drove full force into Brigadier, leaving the horse and his rider crumpled in the roadway. The officer's neck, back and rib were damaged, and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. But Brigadier had taken the full brunt of the collision and his massive injuries were untreatable. He was put down where he lay on the street next to MacDonalds, by officers from the Toronto Police Emergency Task Force.

Unlike many other countries and several US states, there are no additional charges available under the Criminal Code of Canada for deliberately killing a law enforcement animal. This is despite the critical roll Police Service Animals perform in a whole range of duties such as Search and Rescue, Community Oriented Policing, Public Safety and building a bridge between the community and the police.

Now Dan Sandor has proposed creating an amendment to the Criminal Code of Canada to better protect Law Enforcement Animals. Letters have been written to the Canadian Federal Government, including the Prime Ministers office, regarding this proposal giving Police Service Animals the much needed protection they require, under the law. The proposed amendment was nicknamed "BRIGADIERS LAW". For a copy of the open letter to Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, written by Dan Sandor, visit: http://www.brigadierslaw.ca/ or join the cause on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_cause/46332?recruiter_id=10811716