Skip
navigation

Login/Register

My Globe

My
Portfolio

My
Weather

Print
Edition

Newspaper
Subscription

Member Centre

Arts

Enter the city, then press
“Submit”:

Change

City

Hi

Lo

Conditions across
Canada

Visit the weather page to get the
latest temperatures.

Home

National

British
Columbia

Prairies

Ontario

Quebec

Atlantic

Politics

World

Americas

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Africa-Mideast

Report on
Business

News &
Comment

Market Action

Globe
Investor

Globe Fund

Your Money

Managing

Globeinvestor Gold

Sports

Hockey

Baseball

Basketball

Football

Golf

Soccer

Others

Opinions

Columnists

Cartoon

Editorials

Letters to the
Editor

Arts

Movies

Television

Theatre

Music

Books

Technology

Personal
Tech

@play

Science

Life

House & Home

Food
& Wine

Family &
Relationships

Work

Travel

Health

Style

International crime

TIMOTHY APPLEBY

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

April 21, 2007 at 2:24 AM EST

MISSISSAUGA, ONT — Perched on busy Goreway
Drive, the bland Malton public-housing complex that is home to one of the
leaders in Jamaica's bloody political wars might not be in line for any design
awards.

But Cleveland Downer's modest fifth-floor apartment is probably a lot safer
than his last place of residence in the Red Hills Road district of Kingston,
Jamaica's capital. There, on Nov. 19, he survived an attempt on his life that
left an AK-47 bullet lodged near his spine.

Badly wounded though he was, Mr. Downer, 39 — known as Cassie — has fared
much better than at least 23 other people who have been shot dead on or since
that date, in what Jamaican police believe is a bloody feud within the street
gang called The Commons.

Thought to be about 100 strong, the gang derives its name from a teeming,
impoverished neighbourhood deemed so dangerous that taxi drivers would not take
a Canadian visitor there, even by day.

Shot in the neck and upper body, Cleveland 'Cassie' Downer fled the mean
streets of Kingston, Jamaica and arrived in Canada a few weeks later - one in a
series series of back-and-forth trips in recent years. (Fernando Morales/Globe and Mail)

Related Articles

Recent

Under
the gun in Jamaica

Internet Links

Walking
the beat

It is home to Mr. Downer, who is also a landed immigrant in Canada. With no
criminal record in this country, he was able, through marriage to his wife,
Yvetta, a Canadian resident, to settle in the Toronto area about four years
ago.

Shot in the neck and upper body as he and friends prepared to leave his house
for a Jamaica Labour Party convention, he arrived in Canada a few weeks later,
one in a series of back-and-forth trips in recent years, immigration records
show.

In Jamaica, where he once operated a car wash, Mr. Downer is no stranger to
police.

In 2002, he and three other men were charged in the deaths of seven people,
including two children, who were killed when a 25-strong posse of gunmen set
fire to several Red Hills Road houses and started shooting as the occupants
fled. After several years of delays, he was acquitted late last summer when the
case against him collapsed.

Before that, also in Kingston, he accumulated minor criminal convictions for
trespassing, marijuana possession and assault. And as Jamaican authorities probe
the intra-gang killings since November, which they believe primarily stem from
quarrels over the allocation of government money used for gully-cleaning work,
they say they would like to talk to Mr. Downer.

Britain's courts, too, know of Mr. Downer. In July, 2004, its Court of Appeal
cited his name several times in approving a Jamaican citizen's bid for political
asylum, stating that “there is a real question whether the state of Jamaica
provides sufficiency of protection for an informer or supposed informer. . .
.”

The unnamed asylum seeker contended that, as a suspected agent for the
People's National Party, the JLP's archrival, he had been badly beaten up by a
group of JLP activists and later witnessed the rape of his girlfriend and his
sister by JLP members, allegedly because the women had taken the man to
hospital.

Mr. Downer led the four-member group that roughed up the man, the court
found. And complicating any police investigation was the fact that Mr. Downer's
mother had a relationship with a police sergeant, described in the British
ruling as “a source of information, which he telephones to Cleveland Downer, who
sometimes gives money to the police.”

As for the ultimately abortive murder case against him — adjourned at one
stage because the presiding judge failed to show up — “the lack of progress in
Mr. Downer's trial is entirely consistent with the appellant's expert evidence,”
the appeal court concluded.

Mr. Downer is well known in Kingston for his political connections, who
include JLP General Secretary and local MP Karl Samuda, after whom a street is
named in Red Hills Road. And with an election certain this year and a strong
chance the JLP will end 18 straight years of rule by the scandal-dogged PNP,
there is speculation he may return to lend a hand.

“Cassie is old guard, he'll be back for the election because Karl Samuda will
need him and he's still in charge,” predicted Assistant Police Commissioner Les
Green, who supervises the Jamaica Constabulary Force's organized-crime
portfolio.

“But if he does come back he'll be vulnerable — that's why so many people
have been killed. ... We'd like to talk to him about all that.”

Interviewed briefly by telephone, Mr. Downer said he was not, in fact,
planning to return Jamaica for the election, but he offered no other
information. It was unclear whether he is still receiving medical help in the
Ontario hospital system or has been able to work.

After scheduling a meeting with a reporter, he failed to show up, and
subsequent efforts to speak to him again were unsuccessful.

“He's not around,” said his wife, Yvetta, deflecting further questions and
referring inquiries to Mr. Samuda in Kingston, who did not respond to a message
left with his secretary seeking comment.

The politician and Mr. Downer nonetheless appear to be well acquainted.

Last month, Mr. Samuda accused police of bias and incompetence in probing the
string of killings in Kingston since last November, claiming they were wrong to
focus on Mr. Downer.

Not true, Mr. Green responded. He and other officers would like to talk to
Mr. Downer about 23 mostly unsolved homicides and 13 woundings that they believe
are all connected. Five of those killings took place on the day Mr. Downer was
shot.

Nor would that be the first time Mr. Samuda has provided Mr. Downer with
assistance. Back in 2002, when police announced that they wanted to interview
him in connection with the seven homicides that became dubbed the 100 Lane
Massacre, it was Mr. Samuda who brought him in.

“He insisted that I take him in because he has a perfectly valid alibi,” Mr.
Samuda explained at the time.

Two years before that, Mr. Downer was charged with illegal possession of a
gun and ammunition and with shooting at police, in connection with an incident
that left two of his friends dead. Those charges, too, either were dropped or
ended in an acquittal.

Whatever troubles Mr. Downer may have encountered in Jamaica, in Canada he
has a clean slate.

Under Section 36 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, admissibility
for would-be immigrants convicted of crimes committed abroad depends on the
seriousness of the crimes.

The broad rule is that applicants are barred from entry if convicted of an
offence whose Criminal Code equivalent carries a maximum penalty of at least 10
years imprisonment. However, miscreants guilty of lesser crimes often have a
tough time too, said Toronto immigration lawyer Sergio Karas.

“We sometimes have difficulties with [authorities] over very minor types of
offences, which they seem to take seriously ... sometimes good, hard-working
people who years ago made a small slip are prevented from coming to Canada or
are given the royal runaround.”

Mr. Downer's years-old criminal record, however, appears to have posed few
problems.

In 1989, he was convicted of trespassing on the property of the Jamaica
Telephone Company and fined 1,000 Jamaican dollars — about $20 under current
exchange rates — or three months imprisonment.

In 1997, he received the same penalty for a conviction of assault.

And in 1999, a conviction for possessing marijuana yielded a penalty that was
smaller still: a fine of $100 (Jamaican) or 10 days in jail.

If Mr. Downer does return to Jamaica for the coming election, likely to be
held in the summer, he will join a democratic process that is always lively and
often deadly.

Jamaica's homicide rate remains one of the highest in the world — last year
the island's 2.7 million people experienced 1,340 killings, a 20-per-cent drop
from the record set in 2005. Election years usually see spikes in violence.

In January, Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas warned of an ominous buildup of
weapons in politically divided districts within Jamaica's major urban
centres.

Detective Sergeant Barrington Huntley of the homicide squad concurred. “We're
really worried about what will happen when the election is called,” he said.

Normally, the firearms used in crime are evenly divided between handguns and
long guns. “But when the real war is on,” he said, “it's all rifles.”

Search the NewsSearch
News Stock

Print

E-mail

Comments
(12)

Share

License

Join the conversation

This conversation is semi moderated

12
reader comments | Join
the conversation

Robert
Hughes, shake your head! Right wing? I suppose...

Welcome
to Canada. Enjoy feasting on the sheep.

W
M, I beg to differ about this being a "tough one...

Another
excellent candidate for immigration to Canada...

TV Listings

Enter your postal code and browse an online guide of all your local TV
listings.

Postal code?

Follow this writer

Add
TIMOTHY APPLEBY to my e-mail alerts

Movie Reviews

Globe Insider members can read movies review going back to 1977.

Movie Title

Or
view recent movie reviews

Top Arts Stories

CBC
defends choice not to air Cho video

Cambodians
delve into their Khmer past

Sun
Media locks out Quebec staffers

British
Airways cuts Branson from in-flight Bond film

Go to the Arts section

Arts Columnists

John
Doyle: Bay
Street banality

Andrew
Ryan: RICK
STEVES' EUROPE

Leah
McLaren: Don't
have children, save the world

Johanna
Schneller: Another
mag bites the dust

Top Stories by Section

Report on Business: Blackstone
eyes Telus to join in BCE bid

National: Hundreds
of fishermen still stranded

World: Observers
cast serious doubts on Nigerian vote

Sports: Stars
force seventh and deciding game

Arts: CBC
defends choice not to air Cho video

Technology: Game
makers excited about coming wave

Popular Discussions

274:
Human-rights
museum will honour Canada's values: PM

254:
Ontario
rail blockade ends, more protests planned

242:
Dion
pledges co-operation with Williams

176:
CBC
defends choice not to air Cho video

close

Share this article

Add
to del.icio.us

Add
to Ma.gnolia

Submit
post to digg.com

Seed
this post at Newsvine

Technorati
links to this post

close

What are tags?

A tag is a keyword or descriptive term supplied by our editorial staff used
to associate related articles with one another. Tags make it easier for you to
find other stories that share the same theme or topic with the article you’re
currently reading.

close

Globe Insider E-mail Alerts

Have all subsequent stories by this writer e-mailed to you.

Add
TIMOTHY APPLEBY to my breaking news e-mail alerts

Manage
my alerts

What
are e-mail alerts?

close

What are e-mail Alerts?

E-mail alerts deliver the news to your inbox as it happens.

On-line:

Help

Contact Us

Staff

RSS

Subscriptions

Group
Subscriptions

Member Centre

Mobile

Newspaper:

Help

Contact Us

Staff

Press Room

Corrections

Subscribe

Vacation Stops

Change
Address

Recognition Card

Advertise:

Media & Marketing

Advertise with Us

Privacy Policy

Terms &
Conditions

Disclaimer

© Copyright 2007 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights
Reserved.

globeandmail.com and The Globe
and Mail are divisions of CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc., 444 Front St. W., Toronto, ON  Canada M5V 2S9
Phillip Crawley,
Publisher

Back
to top