Thread by @jondekel

Last week, I went to Chicago to interview @radiohead and its crew about Scott Johnson’s death, returning to Toronto and how the Canadian judicial system failed them. A lot of sweat and tears went into this story, if you can, please read it. theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/art…

@radiohead @philipselway There is a lot of important stuff here, I'll get to that, but first I'd like to talk a bit about what I didn't manage to fit into the feature. [THREAD]

Months were spent agonizing over what exactly happened at the trial. As a Canadian citizen, it seems bonkers to me that a foreigner can be killed in Canada and not expect justice because our judicial system is too broken to hand out a verdict.

Word counts and narratives being what they are, I didn't get to write about much of what I discovered -- both about what happened that day and the actualities of the trail. Since there was never a verdict, truth is hard to pin down and FOI requests take time..

I don't think Twitter is a proper space to lay out some of the more nefarious details I came upon, but as Ken says in the piece, much of what occurred has a "very funny smell about it."

In helping me make my way through that, I need to thank labour attorney @mike_maclellan at CCP Partners. (info: ccpartners.ca/our-team/detai…)

@mike_maclellan and @uoftmse Prof. Doug Perovich, whose course on forensic engineering is well worth checking out. news.engineering.utoronto.ca/making-sense-d…

@mike_maclellan @uoftmse I'd also like to address the upcoming #Toronto shows. There's a perception that @radiohead deliberately chose to avoid Toronto in subsequent tours...

@mike_maclellan @uoftmse @radiohead Not true! The band said that they didn't feel right replacing a full show with a festival set. They wanted to "replace like with like."

@mike_maclellan @uoftmse @radiohead That being said, you can bet this week's shows will be extremely emotional for everyone involved. "Reckoner" in particular will be a special moment.

@mike_maclellan @uoftmse @radiohead Last point on this subject: it's important to note the very real actuality of @radiohead all being killed on that day.

@mike_maclellan @uoftmse @radiohead As was pointed out by a member of their crew, if soundcheck had happened at 4, as scheduled, the PA would have drowned out the sound of snapping metal. 20 people, including all the members of the band, would have all been crushed. No question about it.

Here is the Ministry of Labour report on the @radiohead Downsview stage collapse (obtained through FOI): goo.gl/mBjQ89