TORONTO - Ontario's New Democrats are calling for the removal of Julian Fantino over the provincial police commissioner's conversations last year with aboriginal protester Shawn Brant.
In transcripts of the phone calls, recorded last June, Fantino threatens to destroy Brant's reputation if he doesn't take steps to end an aboriginal blockade in southeastern Ontario.
The calls were made public last week during a preliminary hearing for Brant, who faces several charges in connection with the aboriginal day of action protests last summer.
NDP justice critic Peter Kormos says Fantino's rhetoric flies in the face of the Ipperwash public inquiry, which called on police to forge new ties with the aboriginal community.
The inquiry probed the shooting death of Dudley George, killed by a Ontario Provincial Police sharpshooter during a standoff at Ipperwash Provincial Park in 1995.
