Few see videos as obstacle to impartial Forcillo jury

| Filed under: Toronto

Few see videos as obstacle to impartial Forcillo jury

TORONTO January 20th - In a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 546 Toronto adults, one half think graphic videos of the Sammy Yatim shooting did not make it impossible to seat an impartial jury for the Forcillo trial (49%), whereas just one quarter think these videos, and the publicity they received, made seating an impartial jury impossible (26%). An identical proportion don’t share an opinion (26%).

Believing an impartial jury was not available to Constable Forcillo is more common to the least wealthy (30%), upper income groups ($80K to $100K - 31%), those in North York (34%) and Etobicoke (33%), among those who have trust in Toronto’s police (33%) and, especially, among those who disapprove of charging Constable Forcillo with murder (51%).

 “Half the city thinks Constable Forcillo was able to get an unbiased jury, and those who don’t think so are his supporters, which is testament to the power of the contents of those videos,” said Forum Research President, Dr. Lorne Bozinoff.

Lorne Bozinoff, Ph.D. is the president and founder of Forum Research. He can be reached at lbozinoff@forumresearch.com or at (416) 960-9603.