Front Burner - A fatal 12-story fall, and a no-knock police search

Episode Date: October 15, 2020

Anthony Aust died last week, after falling 12 storeys during a raid by Ottawa police of his home. He was out on bail and under the supervision of his family. His mother, stepfather, and brother spoke to the CBC about how traumatizing the no-knock search was, and how they’re looking for answers about why it happened in the first place. The case is currently under investigation by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit. CBC reporter Judy Trinh spoke to Aust’s family, and investigated the practice of no-knock searches. She told host Jayme Poisson about what she found.

Happy Holidays! I'm Frank Cappadocia, Dean of Continuous Professional Learning at Humber Polytechnic, and I'd like you to set a goal for 2025 to sharpen your skills and get promoted. Register for a professional designation, micro-credential, or certificate with Humber's Continuous Professional Learning and ignite your career journey this new year. Our experts deliver accelerated learning from resilience-based leadership to electric vehicle fundamentals in learning options that work with your ambitious lifestyle. Adapt, evolve, and excel. Go to humber.ca slash cpl to get started. This is a CBC podcast. The only thing I remember after that is begging to let me see him. I just want to see him. Because in my heart and my mind it was, he's still alive.

I just need to touch him. I just need to touch him. I just need to give him a kiss. This is Nora Aust, talking about the moment that she learned that her 23-year-old son, Anthony, died during a police raid. Last Wednesday morning, Ottawa police heavily armed that's not going to happen anymore.

Last Wednesday morning, Ottawa police, heavily armed, rammed through the family's apartment door looking for Anthony. The family says that when he heard the chaos, he jumped out of his 12-story window, falling to his death. Today, what happened to Anthony Aust? And what it might say about the police's use of no-knock entries. Entries that have recently gained worldwide attention because of the case of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. I'm Jamie Poisson. This is Frontburner. Judy Trin, an investigative reporter with the Fifth Estate, is with me today.

Hi, Judy. Thank you so much for joining me. Hi, Jamie. So I want to start today with this home video of the raid. And can you describe this video to me? What do we see? It is approximately 8.55 a.m. You see a television that's on and you see a kitchen table. All of a sudden, you see a door being smashed open with a battering ram.

And then you see officers, heavily armed tactical officers, rush into the room. They throw a smoke grenade, something called a flash bang. So it's a distractionary device. The room fills up with smoke and police repeat and they scream out, police, don't move, police, don't move. Where did this video come from? Why do we have it? The video comes from a security video installed in the apartment by the family. The family has a 94-year-old grandmother who lives there. And she gets lots of visitors from personal support

workers, nurses, and doctors. And so Anthony's mother wanted the camera in there so she could monitor how the treatment was going for her mother. And it was actually part of Anthony's bail plan too. She made the case in court that she would have this camera that was capable of surveilling him. And that would be an extra measure to grant him bail. I disclosed everything to the police. They know who come in. They have camera. They know everything.

Otherwise, they wouldn't release him. have a camera. They know everything. Otherwise, they wouldn't release him. Okay. And just to be clear here for our listeners, let's talk about why the police say they raided this home, why they were there in the first place. The police had a search warrant. We haven't seen it. It is currently sealed. But the mother, Nora Aus, asked to see the search warrant. And what she told me was that the search warrant was for cocaine and a gun. So they came into the home looking for those two items. And of course, because Anthony was out on bail, he must have gotten in trouble with the law previously. In February, he was pulled over in a traffic stop with two other friends in a car.

And inside that vehicle, police allegedly found a gun and some unknown quantity of drugs. But it was enough to lay trafficking charges and firearm charges against all three young men who were in that vehicle. Nobody know my son. We know. And he had the support and the love of everybody because we know the kind of kid that he was. And he was in jail awaiting a bail hearing. Because of COVID, to keep the prisoners safe, the inmates safe, the courts decided that they should try to get as many people out as possible who were considered low risk. So he was one of those individuals that got bail. When my son was released, I was sure he will be safe. And I said, we are safe of the coronavirus.

I will never stop. It wasn't the coronavirus that killed one of my family members. They put a ankle bracelet on him, a GPS tracking device. He was moved into this home with his mother. During the time, his mother had to let everyone know in the court and the police officers who was living in the home. So she listed her two children, her 12-year-old son, her 13-year-old daughter, her husband, a 68-year-old man with a heart condition, and a 94-year-old grandma and herself. Wow, so the 94-year-old grandmother was in the apartment during this raid? Yes, and so were the children. I'm lucky that they are alive. I have to thank God. But my son, they persecuted a young kid, a young man, who didn't even have the chance to have help. They treat him like a criminal.

What has the family told you about what the raid was like? So Ben Poirier, who is the stepfather, was out on the balcony. He was enjoying his morning cigarette and a coffee when all of a sudden police barge in. The place was full of SWAT team or whatever you want to call them. They all had big rifles. He says the door wasn't even locked. They just had to knock. Ben is taken by shock. He calls. He says the sound was so loud. It felt like there was a gunshot going off inside his home. The older lady, I mean, she's 94 and extremely frail. She could have died just from the noise. And he couldn't see anything. There was smoke and he was so confused. And then police initially asked him,

you know, if he was throwing things off the balcony. They grabbed him. They forced him to the ground. And I said, what's going on? I didn't even have time to finish to say that. They put me down. They handcuffed him behind his back. And he has a heart condition.

He's had three strokes. I knew I had a heart attack coming and I told him, I says, I need my nitro and my pills. He said, why? I says, I'm going to have a heart attack. And one of them said, he's joking. And he said that the officers weren't taking him seriously until they saw his body slump, at which time they undid his handcuffs. And then he started calling out for his kids. If only they'd come at the door and knock. That's all they had to do. But they came like terrorists. The place looked like a war zone. No feelings for nothing. Nothing. Can you tell me more about what happened with Anthony here?

What does the family say happened? You know, I use the word jumped because that is what the family says happened as well. That's what they believe happened. But we don't know for sure. We know that he was in this bedroom. There's a photo that we have of the bedroom. There is a single bed buttressed up against a bunk bed so anthony was sharing a bedroom with his little 12 year old brother who was also in that room during the

police raid anthony for some reason jumps on top of the bunk bed. We know that the screen was broken because we can see it in our video. They kicked the door open, but they didn't damage it. And they came in here, and that's where he jumped. So he breaks through the screen, and so it's a small window. So for some reason, he's already hanging outside the window and he falls. His mother believes he jumped because his mother says that he was so frightened of police, frightened of his peers and frightened of jail. And he was also going through a state of depression. So he didn't want to go back to jail.

I asked, why so many police? Why so many police just to look for my son and then So he didn't want to go back to jail. Happy Holidays! I'm Frank Cappadocia, Dean of Continuous Professional Learning at Humber Polytechnic, and I'd like you to set a goal for 2025 to sharpen your skills and get promoted. Register for a professional designation, micro-credential, or certificate with Humber's continuous professional learning and ignite your career journey this new year. Our experts deliver accelerated learning from resilience-based leadership to electric vehicle fundamentals

in learning options that work with your ambitious lifestyle. Adapt, evolve, and excel. Go to humber.ca slash cpl to get started. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income. That's not a typo. 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together.

To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. You mentioned the video of the raid, that we actually have been able to see what these raids look like from the inside. Several years back when I was working with the Toronto Star, we witnessed the Toronto police raid these apartment buildings in the city's northwest corner from the outside. The police were ostensibly busting up this gang that they alleged trafficked in guns and drugs. And they pulled up in these vans, they came out wearing all black and tactical gear. And they went up with battering rams and flashbangs, we could hear the flashbangs from the parking lot. And the account that you've given

here is so similar to many of the accounts that I heard. Families, family members being tied up, children and elderly people terrified. How is the family doing today? I think they are traumatized. I spoke to the mother, Nora, on Monday, and she was frustrated. She has, at that point, she did not receive a call yet from social agencies.

She had called me because to ask whether or not I could put her in touch with some counselors for her kids. I can tell you now that, you know, the schools have called, victim services have called. So they are getting that support now. But it was several days she is she is shaken she's in mourning but she's also angry one of the questions she has is what person what judge would authorize such force such a search warrant. Under those conditions, knowing what was at the house, the people that was at the house. Well, I want to talk to you about that today

because I know that this incredibly tragic case is now renewing criticism of these kind of entries in Canada. How common are these type of entries? They are search warrants carried out How common are these type of entries? police can actually catch the suspects in possession of the evidence, right? And that where there may be a risk of gunfire that the suspects would have access to firearms. So that's what justifies the tactical officers coming in with these flashbangs and their semi-automatic rifles, because there is a risk that they could be shot at. But the question is, how frequent are they? I asked that to an ex-Ottawa SWAT officer. So he was a member of the tactical team in Ottawa for

two decades. And he called them... It's such a bread and butter incident that a drug raid could probably be planned in a matter of hours. These are bread and butter activities for the Ottawa Police Tactical Unit. And it all comes down to the investigation. What do the investigators need? Do they need the individual in proximity of their evidence? Otherwise, if you do a knock announcement in something like this, the evidence is getting flushed or it's getting destroyed. And he says that in Ontario alone, there are hundreds of these so-called dynamic no-knock entries a year.

Right. So the idea here is that these entries are supposed to be used in really urgent circumstances. But the criticism here is that they're being used all the time. but the criticism here is that they're being used all the time. That's right. So in Ottawa, there was a case before the Superior Court of Ontario in February 2020, and it was a case involving a woman by the name of Tamara Baldwin. And what happened in that case was that police, Ottawa police, broke into her home with a battering ram, with the flashbangs.

So the question was asked by the lawyer, by her lawyer, Mark Ertle, why was such force required to go in with a search warrant? These are not people that have like a secret laboratory buried underground or something. They're living in your neighborhood. And it was a very quiet residential street where the flashbang went off. And the judge agreed. The judge said that such force in this case actually showed casual disregard for the Charter of Rights. That that was unacceptable because for 400 years the rule has been that you start with the premise that you will knock and announce that you're the police and that you would only in exigent circumstances do a dynamic entry. And she found that essentially the police were

finding exigent circumstances in almost every case. This 2020 case that we're talking about with Tamara Baldwin, could it have implications on a case like Anthony Ouse at this point? Absolutely. But if you talk to Mark Erdl, the lawyer, what he actually says was he was expecting Tamara Baldwin's case to curb the number of no-knock entries that Ottawa police were participating in. But that, in his opinion, didn't happen. Ertl believes that Anthony Ouse's death may be the turning point. I also can't help but think about Breonna Taylor's case. This is, of course, the case in the United States of a young Black woman who was shot by police in her home and she died. This is a botched police raid. And we have been hearing a lot about these no-knock entries

in that context as well. Her case actually led to the banning of no-knock warrants in Louisville, Kentucky. Is it possible that something similar could happen here in Canada, that police departments could stop using this tactic? Mark Erdl says that Canadians aren't aware about the frequency of these dynamic entries or of Canada's version of no-knock raids. And he says, in many cases, they're even more risky than the no-knock version in the U.S. Because the no-knock warrants in the United States just mean you don't have to knock and announce.

But dynamic entries in Canada often involve a lot more than not knocking and announcing, but also throwing one of these flashbang devices into the place, setting off a smoke bomb and some loud noises to distract the people inside. And most times people would be surprised that our police use tactics that are more extreme than tactics used in the United States, but at least as far as I can tell, that seems to be the case. So before we go, I want to bring it back to Anthony Au's family. What is the latest in this investigation?

Because this is a police-involved death, the police watchdog in Ontario, the Special Investigations Unit, is investigating. So police are not allowed to speak out on it. But what I can tell you is that the SIU has identified three subject officers. So these are three officers who may have seen Anthony Oust in his last moments. They may have been in the room Anthony Oust in his last moments. They may have been in the room when he fell from the window. They have been identified, but there is no guarantee. There is no legal requirement for these three officers to submit to an interview to SIU, nor can the SIU investigators compel them to hand over their notes. Okay. And of course, we don't know where this case will go next

when it comes to the execution of this warrant itself. We could conceivably see a similar case to the one of Tamara Balwan, right? Similarly, I can tell you that the family is looking into the possibility of taking legal action against the Ottawa police. is looking into the possibility of taking legal action against the Ottawa police. I don't condemn the young people that are in trouble. I condemn the government. I condemn the system.

I condemn the right that is given to the police force. We have no right. Okay. Well, Judy Chin, thank you so much for bringing this important story to us. We're going to keep tabs on it. Thank you for joining me. Thank you, Jamie. I'd like to leave you today with a few words from Anthony Oust's family. This is Raymond Oust, remembering his older brother. We were always close.

Obviously we got in our brotherly fights, but he was always supportive of me. He always put me in his high graces, especially around his friends. Whenever I talked to them, I could just tell that he talked good about me. He always protected me, and he had so much good in him. We talked about our future, what might happen, what we could do. He was a good, good big brother. All right, that's it for today. I'm Jamie Poisson.

Thanks for listening to FrontBurner and talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.