The Police Have Failed My Mother

 

In Toronto, we also have a Benjamin Wey. A connected businessman who likes to brag about his connections in high places. This Hong Kong-Canadian businessman is well connected with another Hong Kong-Canadian, who was (or still is) the highest ranking auxiliary police officer in The Toronto Police. The businessman was awarded The Queen's Jubilee Medal some years ago, he proudly wore and has posted on his immigration translation services' homepage. This is not his only business. He has a travel agency catering to primarily mainlander tourists.

In March 2010, I reported this Jubilee award recipient to the police, the chief of police via email and cc'd his five deputies. Within weeks, by May, my life changed, my home too.

I decided to share my experience of threats. After reading about Benjamin Wey's attacks against Ms. Francine McKenna @retheauditors.

The difference between Francine McKenna's approach and my approach have produced very different results. She tweeted her response to Benjamin Wey's threats, I didn't. What a mistake.

This is my story.    

In April 2014, I didn't have access to Twitter. The reason was, for a totaling of 129 days, (from December 9, 2013 to April 16, 2014) I didn't have access to the news or Twitter.

The truth of the matter, I was arrested, charged and incarcerated for voting for the former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

The police decided to charge me based on a false statement made by my aging father. During a visit to our home, the police officers have encouraged my father to sign a restraining order against me. My mother and I looked on in disbelieve.

My mother wanted me to stay with her. She did not trust my father. The police didn't believe me. They never took me serious. They never took my mother serious. They didn't listen to me or my mother. My mother was ignored. I believe the police officers took advantage of my parents' senior age and their situation.

I was charged with an assault charge, this is a criminal offense.

During my ride to the police station, the police asked me if I was employed. I told the police, I am not employed. However, I have sent numerous resumes including the one I have personally dropped off to Mayor Rob Ford's office, a few days prior, at the Toronto City Hall.

I also told the police, the day after I delivered the resume to his office, our Mayor's power was removed. Councillor Norm Kelly, his deputy, assumed full power as Mayor.

The officers asked me, after the crack cocaine incident, would I still vote for him. I told the police, I do not condone crack-cocaine but I like Rob Ford's fiscal policy. I told them, yes, I would still vote for him. Our conversation inside the police cruiser was all recorded on the dashcam.

I was punished. By the police.

During my incarceration, the police wanted me to reach out to my family for bail. I refused. I told them, they should release me and drop the charge. Like the dashcam in the cruiser, check the nanny cam in the house. I am not guilty.

The police cruisers that have visited our home have come from various division 33, 31, 13, 14, 41. When they show-up, it was always in threes. Three police officers for each visit. I was charged at 33 police division and was transported to the old city hall located in the heart of downtown Toronto next to the current city hall in ward 27.

After the crown realized that I was not going to meet the bail, they transferred my case file to 1000 Finch Avenue courthouse in ward 8 and my new resident for the next 129 days was at Vanier Women's Correctional Facility in Milton.

I never wavered. The assault charge was withdrawn. The crown pleaded habeas corpus. At the time, I didn't know what habeas corpus means. I didn't know why the police all of sudden have a change of heart.

Now, I do.

After being incarcerated for 129 days, I was released on Wednesday, April 16, 2014. The following week, I had to return to court to sign some papers. I never agreed to a restraining order. I was told, either sign or go back to jail. I didn't have any good choices.

The crown announced my mother, 張秋月 Luna Chen, a RBC Royal Bank diamond-pin retiree has died of sudden death. Three days after my release, on Saturday, April 19, 2014. I didn't know how she died, because I was forbidden to return to my family home, the same home I have lived since 1973. The first thing I did was to order a sudden death report. The report have since been switched with added content, more pages, and new letter head.

I absolutely believe my arrest was the police's way to tarnish my reputation and to prevent me from running for city councillor in ward 33.

My experience at Vanier, has given me perspective. I can speak with some authority about their operation and delivery management support system from key staff such as deputy warden, doctors, nurses, correctional guards, case workers and social workers. I learned, why they call a van, Paddy Wagon. A derogatory term against Irish people. Irish Cops.

I suspect what was happening to me in ward 33 and my email to the chief of police was very likely happening to my parents in Taipei. We were being targeted, being hazed or hazing, simultaneously in Toronto and in Taipei. By now, my parents have lived in Taipei for eight years, (from May 2004 to September 2012) They have gone back and forth many times. However, this last time, was the longest, an eight-year stay.

I am not sure at the time, my father has grasped the situation, but my mother knew. My parents were fighting against a corrupted KMT government for their properties in Taiwan. They wanted to sell the properties. They were unsuccessful due to a political road block. My parents were telling me how corrupted the elected government officials were. My parents’ properties in Taipei were being trashed by 流氓 intruders. The KMT government would hire gangs to do the dirty work.

At this point, I know our phone calls and all communications were compromised, including emails. Especially, after I emailed to the chief of police and his deputies about Mr. Jubilee. I am absolutely sure my family home has also being compromised in ward 33. The same goes to my parent’s properties in Taiwan.

In the meantime, our neighborhood has seen an influx of renters than owners. Seneca College is about 15 minutes away from my family home by car, the surrounding neighborhoods were full of home owners who rents out to students from China.

I knew my neighbors, being a conservative in a liberal neighborhood for as long as I have. They were mostly teachers, school principals, firefighters, correctional officers, security guards, nurses and social workers. Our neighbors have come and gone. They may claim they were conservatives, they were not.

Ward 33, once considered an affluent neighborhood, until For Rent signs started to pop up in the front lawns of several houses or six cars parked on a double car driveway. Our family never rented out our home to anyone.

When my parents were not in Taiwan, we were always targeted by the Chinese real estate agents who wants to list our home. They were told by our neighbors that we wanted to move. My mother was not happy.

We were also targeted by the driving school cars, circling around our streets. Almost all were Chinese from the mainland. On most days, the company signage on top of driving school car appears to have the same company address as Mr. Jubilee's business address building in Scarborough.  

My mother was once confronted by one of the driving school instructor, who came up to our driveway where my mom was standing and slammed his fist on the car next to her. Miraculously, the instructor was pulled away by a postman who happens to appear out of nowhere. My father was in the house calling the police.

I was so happy to receive my parents at Pearson International Airport, until my mother came out in a wheelchair. I was shocked.

To see my mother in a wheelchair. My father, my siblings, my family never told me. My mother never told me. I gathered my father have forbidden my mother to say anything to me. My mother looked like someone who just being released from Auschwitz concentration camp.

She was all bones.

The only thing that stuck out was her stomach, as hard as a basketball. Her mucus was as thick as chewing gum. She has to sleep in an angle or she would cough uncontrollably.

Later on, to wash her body, I saw a huge ugly scare on her back. It looks like a shape of a huge spider or the size of someone's hand. She has a broken bone on her upper arm, you can see the bone broken apart, not connected as one bone. Her toe nails on both feet were "severely" deformed by fungal infection. There were dirt underneath her fingernails. She has trouble walking, her feet was very swollen near the ankles. Her cloth smelled like urine.

My mother was broken.

Except for his teeth, dark, which requires a well overdue cleaning. My father, on the other hand was perfectly fine. No marks, no fungal infections. Very mobile. He was on the phone to his friends ready to play golf within days of his return from Taiwan. My father has no intention to care for my mother. He sees my mother as burden. He is too ashamed to be next to her.

By October 2012, After a month living with my parents, I noticed for the first time, how my father and mother's roles have changed. Instead of usual husband and wife quarrels, my father would have the upper hand on all matters. He would ignored my mother when she needs to go and ready to leave the bathroom. He was abusive towards my mother. When one parent is in a wheelchair, the relationship is no longer equal.

There were well over ten calls made by my father to the police about me defending my mother. Of course, when the calls got through, his version of sequence of events to the police were how uncooperative I was. I am thinking, how many times my father has made these type of calls to the police in Taipei, for whatever the reason. I wanted to know if my parents' neighbors have heard my father abusing my mother. I wanted to know how often my father left my mother unattended. I wanted to know, why my father pulled the telephone plug when mother was telling me about an incident that happened a day before, where a neighbor on the third floor in her building threw a bucket of water over my mom while my parents were going up to their home on the fourth, the top floor. My father scolded my mother for 亂講話 speaking nonsense. Pulling the phone plugs happens a lot. My father’s excuse, being frugal.

My father started to call the police whenever I defended my mother. He wanted me to leave the house against my mother's wishes. My father would threaten my mother if she disagrees with him in front of the police. He would threatened not to give her money, I saw how my mother begged my father to take her to the bank, my father refused. Now, I understand why my mother never send pictures. My father's favorite name for my mother was useless.

Within a month of their arrival from Taiwan, I was homeless.

I have stayed at eight different homeless shelters in GTA. Again, I can speak with some authority about the operational side and my first-hand experience dealing with case workers and social workers.

By February 2013, my mother was being cared for by personal support workers (PSW) from Circle of Care. My siblings didn’t care for the PSW nor did my mother. But, my siblings never offered to care for my mother, not one sibling. They are too busy. Knowing how unreliable my father was. I suspect my siblings have installed nanny cams to keep an eye on my parents. The police knew my father was abusing my mother, but sided with my father. The police says it was my father's house. Although, my mother confirmed with the police it was under a joint name.

Many times my mother wanted to stay with me but my father refused. My mother begged me to take her with me, she says she rather stay in the homeless shelter with me. the police watched. The police chose to ignore my mother. When she asked the police officers to remove their shoes before coming into our home. That's our custom. They ignored her.

Two reasons for the restraining order, initially, it was not to attend within 500 meters, then the judge reduced to 250 meters, so I can use highway 404 and 401, see map above. Absolutely no contact to my family home forever:

1. The Toronto Police Association supports ward 33 incumbent, Shelley Carroll. Their office building was within minutes from my family home at 180 Yorkland Blvd. See map above upper right corner of my picture.
2. To prevent "yours truly" from running October 2014 municipal election against the incumbent. I would be the first Taiwanese-Canadian conservative leaning candidate.

In ward 33, our voting location is at Muirhead Elementary School. See map above.

In June 23, 2014, The Toronto Police Association moved to the same office building as JPMorgan Chase, Chase Card at 2075 Kennedy Road, in Scarborough. That's ward 40 councillor, Norm Kelly. He was the former deputy mayor who assumed full power from former mayor Rob Ford. It was no secret, I started canvassing in ward 33 neighborhoods long before Toronto's municipal election VOTE2014.

My mother would still be alive today, if I wasn't taken away from her. My mother wanted to be with me, because she wanted to live. She was getting better. My father didn't like that because he would have to entertain my mother.

She believes she would live to 97. I believed her. I believed she can. I really do.

The police have failed my mother.