What is the current state of the law on assault by a member of the police?

In R v. Dugdale, [2005] OJ No 5690, a 5-year member of the police assaulted a detainee who was in the police station because he needed to give a breath sample. The detainee was being very uncooperative, at times argumentative and perhaps “playacting” throughout the process, and the officer became very frustrated. At one point, the officer grabbed the detainee by the throat and later used his boot to push the detainee’s leg off of a chair, which caused the detainee to roll to the floor. The sentencing judge found that no great degree of force was applied by the accused; there was nothing that actually constituted a “kick”, and that there are no allegations of injury. The accused was sentenced to a conditional discharge with 100 hours of community service. COMMENT: differs from the case at bar in that no great degree of force was used, no injuries were alleged, and the actions and attitude of the complainant precipitated the frustrations of the accused.