4.7 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2024
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
A four-part special new presentation to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the controversial death of Toronto bike messenger Darcy Allan Sheppard.
Sheppard v Bryant
On August 31, 2009, there was a catastrophic collision between a cyclist and a motorist on a busy downtown Toronto street — a collision so unfathomable that it shocked bystanders and the city at large.
Darcy Allan Sheppard died on the street that night. The motorist, former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant was arrested, charged, and released the next morning. The way the case unfolded in the media – and the justice system – would be hotly debated for years to come.
In this new four-part series, edited and re-mastered, you’ll hear a story of elites vs peasants, cars vs bicycles, and wealth and privilege vs poverty and crime. It’s a cautionary tale of how justice works differently in this country for some people.
Special thanks to Allan Sheppard, Joe Hendry and Victoria (the eyewitness). Thanks also to writer Mary Fairhurst Breen for editing and creative direction on this reboot series.
Please respect the privacy of those involved in this case.
Look out for early, ad-free release on CTC premium feeds: available on Amazon Music (included with Prime), Apple Podcasts, Patreon and Supercast.
Full list of resources, information sources, credits and music credits:
See the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production, funded mainly through advertising. |
| 0:04.6 | You can listen to Canadian True Crime ad-free and early on Amazon music included with Prime, Apple Podcasts, Patreon, and Supercast. |
| 0:12.5 | The podcast often has disturbing content and coarse language. It's not for everyone. Please take care when listening. |
| 0:19.1 | Hi, everyone. I hope you're well. We're still on a summer break here and our new season starts |
| 0:24.6 | in just a few weeks. But today, a special bonus presentation to commemorate the 15th anniversary |
| 0:31.6 | of the controversial death of Toronto Bike Messenger Darcy Ellen Shepard. Several years back, we released an extremely |
| 0:39.7 | detailed series about this case. This is part one of a new, heavily edited and remastered version |
| 0:47.0 | of the story to commemorate the anniversary. The case is about a catastrophic collision |
| 0:52.9 | between a cyclist and a motorist on a busy downtown |
| 0:56.7 | Toronto Street on August 31, 2009, a collision so unfathomable that it shocked bystanders |
| 1:05.1 | and the city at large. Darcy Allen Shepard, the cyclist, died on the street that night. |
| 1:11.8 | The motorist, former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant, was arrested, charged and released the next morning. |
| 1:19.9 | What happened that night was a tragedy for all concerned. |
| 1:23.7 | But the sequence of events that led to Darcy's violent death were not so clear and would be hotly debated for years to come. |
| 1:32.3 | The terrible news dominated the media cycle, with sudden twists and turns that made it difficult to sort out fact from possible fiction and the truth from the spin of a costly crisis PR firm, even as the case proceeded through |
| 1:47.5 | the criminal justice system. While the outcome itself was controversial, Darcy's father, |
| 1:54.2 | Alan Shepard, pretty much expected it. What he didn't expect was the way the prosecutor |
| 2:00.0 | chose to explain how that outcome was decided, |
| 2:03.9 | and he wasn't the only one who thought something seemed significantly wrong with how the case had played out. |
| 2:10.5 | Several years after that, hidden documents and files were released through a freedom of information request, |
| 2:19.4 | strongly suggesting that what actually happened was quite a bit different to the narrative presented by the press and the prosecutor. |
| 2:26.5 | Canada abides by the open court principle that public confidence in the integrity of the court |
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