Olympic coach Joan McDonald hopes people don’t rush to judgment against Toronto archer John David (JD) Burnes, who was one of the men charged with possession of child pornography last week.
“He’s not guilty of anything yet,” McDonald said Thursday. “In Canada, you’re innocent until you’re proven guilty.”
Burnes, a 20-year-old Toronto native and Queen’s University student and the youngest member of Canada’s archery team at the Beijing Olympics, was arrested in an Ontario-wide pornography sweep last week that resulted in 93 charges against 31 people. Burnes is charged with one count each of possession of child pornography and one count of making available child pornography. He is scheduled to appear in a Kingston court May 5.
McDonald said she knew few details of the allegations, and only learned of the arrest through the media.
“This is new information for us,” she said. “It’s an ongoing investigation. We don’t have any information … You guys (media) have more information than we do.”
She told the Canadian Press that she considers the situation a tragedy, saying, “It’s always a tragedy when young people are in trouble.”
