Police chief issues special statement on recent apartment break-in
Kawartha Lakes Police Chief Kirk Robertson has issued a special statement after a media release involving an apartment break-in that saw both the resident charged and the intruder.
Robertson, recognizing the media release has “generated significant public interest and emotional responses” meant a special statement was made this morning.
“The Kawartha Lakes Police Service appreciates the community’s engagement and concern. However, the negative commentary about the officers and their actions is unjust and inaccurate.
The investigators were able to examine all of the information and evidence that was available, prior to laying any charges. In order to protect the investigation and the rights of any person who is charged with an offence during their court proceedings, only a limited amount of information is being released to the public. The role of the police is to investigate impartially and present findings to the justice system, which ultimately determines the outcome. It is important to remember that charges are not convictions; they are part of the judicial process, which ensures that all facts are considered fairly in court. We encourage you to follow this matter as it proceeds through the justice system. Under Canadian law, individuals have the right to defend themselves and their property. The Criminal Code of Canada, specifically Sections 34 and 35, allow a person to use reasonable force to protect themselves and their property if they believe they are facing a threat.
However, it is important to understand that these rights are not unlimited in Canada. The law requires that any defensive action be proportionate to the threat faced. This means that while homeowners do have the right to protect themselves and their property, the use of force must be reasonable given the circumstances. The Kawartha Lakes Police Service remains committed to public safety, transparency, and respectful dialogue. At this time we will not be releasing any further information about this incident. Thank you for your continued support and understanding.”
Kirk Robertson
Chief of Police
A conviction will mean that intruders are valued higher than the homeowners. The police weren’t able to find him, if he had killed the man that would’ve the end of it, he was totally in the right to defend himself
Agree 100%
Disgusting! Our country is being destroyed.
Its a sad commentary of Canadian criminal laws that the intruder in this case is the “victim”. The courts will just let the intruder out again to re-offend yet again.
garbage. absolute B.S.! even Doug Ford agrees!! moron cops. Wonder what they would have done if it was a cops house??
Laws have to reformed on this matter. If someone broke into my place I would do the same. They have no rights in my home.
The system is broken, call your LIBERAL MP’s and demand that this be fixed. Too many criminals are being released instead of kept in jail.
2ndly, anyone breaks into my house, ANYTHING at my hands is considered a weapon and I dont have time to decide if the person breaking in has a guy or any other deadly weapon, I REACT immediately.
Yes legally you’re only in the clear with equal force in retaliation, but thats not enough when someone is in your home via forced entry.
I won’t judge without all the facts, but on the face of it, this police action screams to be ridiculed. It also adds to the societal division we’re experiencing in Canada.
To the chief of Police. As the “intruder” has already been cited/charged for previous unrelated cases please provide the legal reason why your department refuses to release this individuals name. According to your public release statement you are encouraging citizens to quote ” We encourage you to follow this matter as it proceeds through the justice system” . How can one follow a case when the individual that has been charged has not been named. Since you have charged the intruder who has been previously charged are you following by law to name this individual. An inquiry to Google states the following
“Online Search Tool (for Adult Criminal Cases):
The Ministry of the Attorney General offers a tool for searching for adult criminal court case information.
This tool allows you to search for cases by accused person’s name or Information number.
You can find future court dates and appearance types through this search tool”.
So unless you release the name of the intruder and or information number then your suggestion of following the case are irrelevant. Your statement informing residents to follow this case makes no sense. If you genuinely care about the law abiding citizens of Lindsay you should clariify what your interpretation of your statement ” Under Canadian law, individuals have the right to defend themselves and their property. The Criminal Code of Canada, specifically Sections 34 and 35, allow a person to use reasonable force to protect themselves and their property if they believe they are facing a threat. Issuing a blanket statement as you did helps no one. The citizens of Lindsay deserve more than you have offered. As well I encourage all to contact our local MPP Laurie Scott. She has yet to release a statement or response to the chief of Police.
Another example of how our Province (and Country) are falling apart. These charges need to be dropped immediately. Stop protecting the criminals. I agree with the majority. Once you have made the decision (mistake, error…etc.) to break into someone else’s home you have given up ANY rights. Someone breaks into my house, i will defend it and it my family (if my dog doesn’t get them first)….they would probably charge my dog and have it put down.
Both you and the crown attorney should resign immediate… NOTHING LESS !… My guess is that you’ve never been in a fight as an adult with another adult and nobody to break it up and no chance of getting to a phone… You should be ashamed for this man doing your work…waiting on Phone just to get through to the police during an altercation like this would be, and more than likely has been life-threatening to many people again you should be ashamed of yourselves
—–” The Criminal Code of Canada, specifically Sections 34 and 35, allow a person to use reasonable force to protect themselves and their property if they believe they are facing a threat.”—–
If you wake up at 3am and there’s an intruder standing at the foot of your bed holding a weapon, simply ask him politely (you know, like a good Canadian) to wait just one minute before he violently attacks you and your family, so you can get up and do a quick google search on what is defined as ‘reasonable force’ in Canada, before defending yourself against the intruder. What a joke our entire judicial system has become. And YES , I include the police in this statement. They were good at charging people who were in their backyards having a coffee with family members during covid and they’re good at charging a home owner who defends himself against a career criminal who breaks into his home at 3am , but not so good at enforcing the law when it comes to crackheads roaming around Lindsay 24hrs a day ruining the lives of good people. The old phrase ‘low hanging fruit’ comes to mind. UNREAL.
Is the intruder related to someone on the police force or any of the city administrators? If he was previously wanted by the police on unrelated crime, why wasn’t he already captured? Isn’t Lindsay a small enough town where everyone knows each other?
It is unreasonable for the public prosecution service to expect civilians to use reasonable force when faced with an intruder. Combat is not pretty. After two decades in the Infantry and Special Forces I can’t say I would have done anything differently. I do not want to live in society where violence is encouraged, however neutralizing a threat in your own home is not a criminal act.
I am of two minds on this. My personal experience includes a wrongful arrest and detention for political reasons. At the time, I was experiencing reprisal for getting a multinational corporation CEO and Director of Operations fired pursuant to a complaint I made to the Ontario Human Rights Commission about an insurance scam they had organized to extort my disabled clients of their insurance benefits. Specifically, my clients were told they had to perform fellatio during their employability assessments. If they quit, which many did, they got no retraining and no pension. The OHRC found in my favour – the men got fired and I got token compensation – but then the reprisal began. My home was set on fire three times, I was the target of multiple break ins, someone threw a hunk of meat into my yard and threatened to kill me and my dogs. It became so grim that I moved from Hamilton to St. Catharines. But it followed me. I had been advised by a very helpful individual at the Information and Privacy Commission to record everything and if police would not hear my complaints, to write my own report and insist they attach it to their records. So that is what I did. I also made ATIP requests to access police records of the complaints I’d made to them to see if I could identify who was organizing the reprisal. But the police records I was given were completely blacked out. So, I made an appeal to the IPC(ON). During that appeal, two men came to my door, demanded entry and when I refused, said they were going to get reinforcements and would return and use force to gain entry. That was around midnight so I phoned the NRPS and left a voice message for an officer who had helped me with similar incidents in the past. I said that if police could not or would not help me and the men returned and made good on their threat that I would do whatever I could to defend myself, adding that I had only a paring knife to defend myself against the combined weight of the men and whoever they brought back with them. Two days later, three police officers showed up at my door and charged me with threatening for saying I would defend myself if attacked. I was held in segregated and solitary confinement for 36 days, two weeks of that without access to a phone. The superintendent was decent and helped me correspond with the IPC(ON) about my appeal but I couldn’t attend the hearing and so I lost my appeal for access to the police records that may have identified who was organizing the reprisal against me that eventually saw me lose everything – all my worldly goods and my reputation. When former RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson corrected the record, one of his officers told me someone official had misused their security clearance to place falsehoods in my personal records at CPIC to flag me as a violent and dangerous offender even though, to this date, I have never had any criminal record or history of criminal activity. As soon as I lost my appeal because I couldn’t attend the hearing because I was in jail, the Crown insisted I be released. They put me on the street and the court ordered me to leave town the same day. I had to get on a bus and leave behind the few things I had left and move to another city where I became homeless. Months later, after the court held a hearing I was not notified of, I got a letter signed by the Crown Attorney saying he had stayed the charge against me and was “satisfied” that I, an innocent person, served 36 days in custody for something that is not a crime – a threat to defend myself if force is used to harm me. That broke me, as I was innocent and had planned to attend court and defend myself as rigorously as I could without legal counsel. It destroyed my belief in the integrity of our justice system. So, I do sympathize with those calling for castle law in Canada. But I also support the KLPS who arrested and charged the individual involved in the incident at issue. The law clearly states that one cannot use excessive force in self defence. That is what I cited to the police who arrested me – my little paring knife would have been no match against the weight of the two men plus whoever they promised to bring back with them to force entry. My voice message for police had been a cry for help not a threat to cause bodily harm. There are good cops and bad cops and good Crown Attorneys and bad Crown Attorneys. They are all under pressure to bend the law for political favours. As was the judge who heard my ciil claim. He waited until everyone had left the courtroom then he gaslit me and laughed at me and made me lose even more trust in justice. I learned later he is politically connected locally. Is it no wonder, then, that those who are wrongly accused can suffer censure equal or even more than that suffered by the guilty? I sometimes think our system prefers those who will bend the law for profit. But without the law that limits the force used in self defence, we’d see people claiming self defence for no end of bodily harm and we all know how good the ill-willed can be at convincing others with lies. At the same time, I do support our MP to bring to parliament our collective interests in cleaning up systemic corruption and bias against innocents and strengthening victims rights. I support the KLPS to do their jobs and I pray the Crown Attorney and whatever judge adjudicates are not mobbed up or compromised politically. It is vital that we don’t tar all police with the same brush nor confuse what they can do with the job of parliamentarians to change the law. Throughout the whole time I was the target of reprisal that misused system agents in police and the Ministry of the Attorney General, I was kept sane – because experiences like mine can make you feel crazy – but good cops and good government officials who provided me vital moral support. I am confident, despite my worldly experience with systemic corruption, that the KLPS officers involved in this incident enforced the law, is is their job, and that both accused persons will receive a fair trial. One thing I am certain of and that is that our justice system, while it suffers from corruption and needs improvement, is among the very best in the world.
Is there a go fund me page for this man to get and pay for a lawyer? The police charging him is going to cost him a lot of money. I can’t believe the police are doing this
While I strongly believe this matter was poorly handles by the police in Lindsay, I wonder what the rationale was for the charges against the victim. Was he familiar with the intruder? Was is drug related? The lack of transparency by KLPS & our relatively new Chief, created a firestorm locally, & caused significant concern & embarrassment to to our community on a national level
I am very interested in the details of why police charged the home owner because on the surface it seems very reasonable that if an individual who makes the decision to invade your home at 3am in the dark with a weapon while having outstanding warrants were even killed this could easily be justified as the potential of imminent danger certainly exists
if a person approached the police with a crossbow that person would be dead and the police would be cleared.