'Roughed up' actor demands apology from police and city

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A Cree actor appearing in Theatre Calgary's Olympic arts festival production of Walsh is demanding an apology from Calgary police and the city, claiming he was roughed up by police.

Ron Cook, originally from Manitoba and now living in Toronto, had demanded an apology after being taken to jail by the police for being drunk in a public place. Cook was not arrested.

While Cook does not deny being drunk, he said four witnesses say police use excessive force in detaining him. The police held Cook under a liquor control act that allows him to detain a suspect for up to 24 hours to sober up.

Cook had been detained following an evening out with four friends at a local bar.

"I was drunk," said Cook. "I went up to a police van and just looked inside. A policeman came up and tasked me if I wanted to go to jail too. The next thing I knew I was being beaten with a stick and then his (the policeman's) fists."

"There were people (Cook's friends) who were not drunk and could have taken him home," says Janice Kowch, Cook's lawyer. "The officers should have exercised discretion."

Cook, who had asked for the apologies before his departure for Toronto, Feb. 8 will likely not get them before that as Calgary police are doing an internal investigation, which Kowch says will take about four weeks.

Kowch is optimistic that Cook will get his apologies, preventing further legal action.