I love how this topic is so black and white for some people and quick conclusions are made without seemingly putting any critical thought into it. Multiple police agencies from two countries are involved in a huge investigation into criminal activity on the Windsor-Detroit circuit. There was obviously something fishy going on and very serious charges were made. This is not a declaration of innocence. Its a statement that there is insufficient evidence to prove guilt and not worthy to proceed. Theres a big difference between the two.

They should not bring these types of serious charges until they are sure there is enough evidence to stand up but having said that, anyone who thinks they can say that these people are 100% innocent are perhaps not dealing with reality. There are all kinds of guilty people that walk out of court declared innocent only because there was not enough evidence to convict them. Did these people do anything wrong, the truth is i have no way of knowing and neither does anyone else. The only people that know for 100% sure are the 3 men involved and if they did do it they are not likely to ever admit it to anyone no matter how well you think you know them. If they did this then they got off easily, if they did not do this then it is a shame they were put through this.

Three innocent, lifelong, respected Horsemen were wrongfully accused - and convicted - of crimes they did not commit. They had their lives and livelihood stripped away ... hard-earned reputations as honest Horsemen were shattered.

The black mark on those reputations will haunt them for the rest of their lives. They will forever be seen by some as 'cheaters' - and NOTHING is more reviled among honest Horsemen as a cheater. They will live forever having been publicly accused of cheating.

These men ... solid, honest Horsemen ... will NEVER 'forget' or outlive the wrong that was done to them. It is absolute folly to suggest that their lives will ever be the same. Anyone with any level of honesty and integrity could only begin to imagine the grief and pain caused by the imprudent action taken against them.

They never deserved to be punished in the way they were. Then never deserved to have suffered in the way they have. They ARE innocent of the claims against them. Therefore they were ALWAYS innocent. Yet they were wrongfully charged and convicted!!!

There MUST be some recourse to this. Who ELSE has this happened to (make a list in your own mind)?? Who will be next?? Me perhaps? Or you?

Mr. Dawson, you make this sound as though this should be treated as "water under the bridge". As if these men should just suck it up, forget it even happened and move on. These men have had to go a substantial amount of time without their main source of income. For that I believe the ORC should consider their own mandate and be accountable.

As for you pointing out how dilligent the ORC were in proving the parties to be not guilty, or that they could not compile enough evidence to be found guilty is hogwash. Every policing agency available tried to convict these men and when it was all said and done they could not be found guilty. So please do not try to make it as the ORC were acting alone and because of the other duties they are responsible for made it impossible to provide the time required to convict. You know that is not the case.
This was a total botched case and the policing authorities need to take a long hard look at what they did wrong and fix it.

I am not saying these men were innocent, I am saying that you have misconstrued this to sound like the ORC worked so dilligently to prove their innocence. If that was the case perhaps the ORC should work on their timing. Perhaps they should work so "diligently" prior to laying charges and suspensions.

To Ted Decker: Re the long wait to drop the suspension vs Mr. Forward, the ORC has lawyers and investigators working all the time. They are looking into all kinds of race breaches and have to study (hard at times) the various items that they feel should be investigated.
If Mr. Forward was the last to be reinstated of the three drivers, there was a reason for that. The evidence against the first two drivers was easier to decipher and I would submit that is why they were given another chance before Mr. Forward.

Consider this--Mr. Forward was actually lucky to be reinstated after the first two drivers.He was lucky as the lawyers and investigators gave it there all and tried to remove all doubt of his perceived wrongdoing.All this extra work took time and the energy of the ORC people working on these cases.

I don't know if Mr. Forward was wrong in his activities, but you can rest assured that a lot of work went into the studying of all the facts surrounding his case.

Also, remember that the ORC is over all the race tracks in Ontario, and that would be another reason why Mr. Forward did not get his suspension lifted. Some of the people at ORC would be elsewhere doing work at other tracks.

The main thing is that Mr. Forward is back in the bike and can start all over with his suspension a bad memory for him that he will no doubt forget in time. (winning races will assist him to forget.)

To sum up, all three drivers have had a new chance and the three suspensions (now cancelled) tell me that the ORC were diligent in their work, found nothing, and now all three drivers have their suspensions cancelled and can get back to driving with no hint of guilt in the Winner's Circle, after they first cross the wire.

If there "wasn't enough evidence" to uphold the suspension, why was Forward (and the others) suspended in the first place? If it it is now believed that Forward did nothing wrong, shouldn't there be an apology? How does he recoup lost income? In the meantime, a horseman who likely knows no other means of earning a living because he's been in the business his entire life sits out, waiting for appeals to be heard?

These guys either did what they were accused of or did not. The ORC as the governing body should have had enough evidence prior to issuing these lengthy suspensions, and, now that they have discovered the case has no merit should make amends with the horsemen. I'm ALL for cleaning up the sport; 100% behind all efforts. This case, however, has done nothing but damage the reputation (and take money from) several horsemen who have now been exonerated and completely confused the betting public, the CUSTOMER (remember us?).

So today, 3 days after the reversal of Brad Forward's conviction, the ORC decided after probably many comments including those in this forum and many others on the internet decide to release a statement of sorts to sort of cool our heads about this - well kind of. Did you read the statement?? Does it say anything at all?? I mean really check this out:

"a very important consideration was that most of the evidence available to be called in the Forward matter was already called in the Wallis and Piroski hearing"-ORC
-in that hearing the evidence was considered either insufficient or inconclusive.

"After a lengthy hearing, the ORC Panel concluded that this evidence was insufficient to prove that these individuals had participated in illegally influencing the outcome of races."-ORC
-insufficient to prove, did they not consider prior to suspending and charging and defacing these reputations whether the evidence they had was sufficient??

"This was an important factor in deciding that it was not in the public interest to continue the proceedings against Mr. Forward."-ORC
-I am not sure who they are speaking for anymore. The public is interested in how a governing body of racing can, at their own will, decide to strip 3 men of their reputations and income for a period of several months and then come back and say, "go ahead and apply for your license, we haven't got enough to make this stick."

I would like to extend my heartfelt apology to Mr. Piroski, Mr. Wallis, and of course Mr. Forward, for any of the thoughts or comments that I extended while assuming that the ORC performed a thorough and evidence filled investigation. This assumption will never be made again.

Statement ? Sorry excuse of a statement.
Complex legal issues?

Why do not humor us. Some of us have the understanding to assess these complex legal issues!
What happened to "you prove your allegations before issuing a fin (or play with somebodies existence).
Said to see that people accept such judgments without going on the barricades.

Claude Mercer says it all.

merci Claude

Glad to see that Brad is back. What is required is another model of governance for the racing industry such as a self regulatory body where there would be some level of accountability. After all, doctors, dentists, and lawyers, etc. are all self regulated. Why can't we be as well?

Glad to see Brad has an opportunity to get back in the sulky.
I was stumped by the charges at the time...as I recall, Brad's average was pushing .400 at Windsor Raceway when he was suspended...and he was not trying sometimes ??..Wow, maybe makes him the greatest driver ever ! :)

Where there's smoke there's usually fire.....strange that he never testified at the other hearing where the rest managed to get off. This should once & for all prove to the ORC that they should leave the investigating`up to the experts. Once they had the initial evidence, it should have been handed over the the RCMP to do some under cover work....afterall this is a `major`crime being committed if true & instead of suspensions jail time should be the punishment imo.

The Ontario Racing Commission is top heavy with lawyers who have vast experience with all types of rulings. It must be that the ORC found some weak portions of their suspension on Mr. Forward.

The only fair action was to drop all action against Mr. Forward. The weak portion of this suspension will no doubt remain private to the ORC.

Mr. Forward no doubt will be happier tonight, and I hope he follows all rules of racing, the same as all drivers must do.

Many people are taking the ORC to task for suspending him. Once the ORC found a weak link, they rescinded the suspension, because if not withdrawing the suspension, the rights of Mr. Forward would be weakened and at peril. So, the ORC did the right thing--let Mr. Forward start over with a clean slate.

it's about time that Brad is allowed to return to his work. I've known brad since his days at the old Tartan Downs in Sydney. He is a first class horseman, and a great driver. Good luck. Hope to see you soon at the races.

How is this possible? They set a guy down for five years and sixteen months later issue notice that he can apply to be licensed once again without any explanation at all regarding why they have changed their mind?

So, was the original penalty in error, or was there no solid evidence to back up the original decision?

Will be glad to see the return of Brad Forward .

Wallis and Piroski were given 10 years and returned months ago.The precedence was set, you had to allow Forward the opportunity to return.The fact the he had the lightest of the 3 sentences I find it odd that he was that last of the 3 to return.

No evidence????
Hope your lawyer is up for that Brad!
1 yr. ++ lost income plus reputation.

ORC or Ontario Government
evidence should be heard before any suspension regardless what the offence was.
Judge and Jury

regards,
Totally Confused Now

We will never know. Shortest of the suspensions but did the most time. He was either innocent and should not have been suspended or was guilty and should never race again....where are the facts and the truth!!!

So if Brad's suspension has been lifted it is obvious he was falsely accused. How about his lost income for last 15 months, who will compensate him for this?

Why is the ORC reversing decisions without explanation? If horsemen are deemed guilty of transgressions resulting in lengthy suspensions and or hefty fines, why are these decisions reversed when appealed? If there is sufficient evidence to inflict these penalties, how can they be rescinded without explanation. It appears other horseman and the fans are not deemed worthy of knowing what is going on.

So we can ruin a person's lively hood -- hold his profession hostage for 1.5 yrs & say ooops!!! You can reapply for your job.

Where is the justice for the person involved? One can only hope that Mr. Forward would want to rejoin the profession. I would not blame him, if he just turned his back on harness racing altogether as it did the same to him.

I hope to see you racing again Brad, but only if you want to.

Marie Stoyles-Moura

i did not think that brad did any thing wrong. Look at his driving record. I watch all the races the guys drove for years. I do not understand why they got suspended can anybody explain why they got suspended. I wish brad,gene and kevin the best

Je suis parfaitement d accord avec Mercer , comment peut on se tromper a ce point , de 5 ans a rien ! Apres cela on nous parle de credibillité dans le monde des courses !

Please explain. First suspended for 5 years, now lifted? Did he do anything wrong or not?