TORONTO (CBC) - Ontario Provincial Police used emergency wiretaps to eavesdrop on four people during last summer's Aboriginal Day of Action, skirting the normal need for court approval, the CBC has learned.

That information has emerged in the case against Shawn Brant, a Mohawk leader facing a possible 12 years in prison for a protest that led police to shut down Highway 401 and CN rail lines in Eastern Ontario.

Under the law, most wiretaps need a judge's approval but police can act on their own in extreme emergencies if they suspect the targets of the surveillance are about to commit serious crimes.

In this case, there were four targets: Brant, his brother Gregory and two friends.

In a now famous call recorded by his own force, OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino told Shawn Brant, "your whole world’s going to come crashing down" if Brant did not order aboriginal protesters to withdraw from blockade sites.

While the Mohawk leader was seen as defying the law, it is not clear what, if anything, his brother and the other targets were suspected of. They have not been charged.

Gregory Brant is a prominent Eastern Ontario defence lawyer. The CBC could not reach him for comment, but his brother said there was no reason for him to be included in the wiretap.

"Absolutely none," Shawn Brant said when asked by reporters Tuesday whether his brother had any involvement on the June 29, 2007, protests.

"We have opposing views, and there's absolutely no association in this ...That's what's troubling about this."

Fantino issued a statement on Monday, saying the peaceful end of the standoff "speaks for itself." Meanwhile, Premier Dalton McGuinty has expressed confidence in the beleaguered commissioner, saying Fantino was fair during the standoff and showed "tremendous discipline."

Fantino threatened Brant's brother with charges: lawyer

But Brant and his lawyer are still calling for Fantino's resignation over his "provocative" tone during the talks as well as an abusive use of telephone wiretapping by police.

"Premier McGuinty had better act quickly before we have Chief Fantino's attitudes reflected in death or other kinds of violence," said Peter Rosenthal, who is representing Brant.

Police have said the phone recordings were legal, citing a little-known emergency provision in the Criminal Code of "interception in exceptional circumstances."

But Rosenthal told reporters at a press conference at Queen's Park in Toronto that the use of wiretapping on Brant's brother was "outrageous."

"He is well known in the community as a totally upstanding lawyer who does not get involved in any activity that even borders on the illegal," he said.

Rosenthal also accused Fantino of threatening Gregory Brant with charges of aiding and abetting. In court, Fantino acknowledged that he called Gregory Brant, imploring him to try to intervene to get his brother to take down the blockades.

Another man whose phone was tapped, Mario Baptiste, told CBC News he met Shawn Brant behind the lines at the Oka blockade in Quebec in 1990 but was not involved in last summer's protest.

'I don't believe I am above the law'

The Mohawk protest leader said the OPP has only acknowledged wiretaps on the four numbers, but the total number of those whose lines were intercepted as a result of the investigation into the protests "could be fifty, could be five hundred," but remains unknown.

"Someone needs to be accountable, like I will be accountable," Brant said. "I'm going to take responsibility for what happened that day, and I'm going to go to jail for it and I have no problems doing that.

"I don't believe I am above the law. I believe I am going to be accountable to it."

Rosenthal said that under the emergency provision, police are not required to show evidence to justify the wiretaps, but need only make a request to the phone companies. Those whose calls are monitored never are informed afterward, he noted.

"They just say, 'Do it.' Nobody looks at it," he said. "There's never any scrutiny of it ... Who tests that, ever? We're going to test that with this case."

During his testimony last year at Brant's pre-trial hearing, Fantino said he was aware the conversations with Brant were being recorded, but said he had no role in the decision to wiretap the calls.

Det.-Const. Douglas Weiss, the lead investigator in the case against Brant, also couldn't say who in the OPP authorized the wiretaps. He also testified at Brant's pre-trial hearing that he has to this date never heard them and never asked for them to be included as evidence.

The OPP only decided that they would disclose the existence of the wiretaps a week before the pre-trial hearing began, Weiss told the court.

"They were thinking of not even telling us," Rosenthal said.

Brant's trial is expected to begin in January in Napanee, Ont.

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