Edward Sapiano

Edward Sapiano is a Canadian defence lawyer, based in Toronto, Ontario, notable for his role in the so-called Toronto 18 Toronto terrorism trial and the Toronto police drug squad scandal in the late 1990s. He is regularly featured by media outlets, including The Globe and Mail, CBC and Sun TV, commenting on criminal law issues.

Career

Sapiano graduated at the top of his class from the University of Manitoba law school in 1991 and was called to the bar in Ontario in 1993. Sapiano is a member of the board of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, holding a position as director of the board in 2004.

In 1999, allegations by Sapiano and eight other Toronto defence lawyers sparked an internal probe into allegations of corruption within the Toronto Police Services, which saw 8 officers charged with stealing money from a fund meant to pay drug informants. Five officers were ultimately convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury charges by a jury in June 2012.

In 2004, Sapiano was one of the founding lawyers behind Piece Options, a program that allows people to hand in illegal guns anonymously to the authorities. More than 40 weapons have since been turned over to police in Toronto.

In February 2005, he called for Ontario Superior Court Justice Eugene Ewaschuk to be removed from the trial of accused murderer Richard Brewster, alleging that Ewaschuk had a "20 year history" of creating the perception of bias against defendants. Ewaschuk refused to step down, but the case ended in a hung jury.