The province's inspector general of policing is holding a news conference Monday morning to give an update on whether they will investigate the Toronto Police Service after seven of the force's officers and one former officer were arrested and are facing corruption charges. Ryan Teschner will begin the announcement at 10 a.m. and CBC News will stream it live in this story.
The inspector general, a relatively new arm's-length position tasked by the province with overseeing policing, was asked to investigate Thursday after eight current and retired Toronto officers were charged in an organized crime and corruption investigation. The case immediately raised questions about whether systemic issues contributed to organized crime's alleged infiltration of the ranks, said Kent Roach, a University of Toronto law professor and contributor to several high-profile police inquiries. Those questions, he said, are best answered by a civilian-led investigation.
News that seven Toronto police officers have been swept up in a corruption probe involving a conspiracy to kill a corrections official has sparked questions about public trust in police with Mayor Olivia Chow saying Chief Myron Demkiw will have to "earn" back the trust of residents. Chow did not hold back when asked about the investigation at an unrelated event Thursday afternoon, saying police officers found guilty of committing any crimes deserve to be thrown in jail.
Paris prosecutors on Monday requested six-year prison sentences for two former narcotics squad police officers who replaced confiscated cocaine with sugar paste. The defendants, Thierry C, 60, and Christophe J, 50, were members of the French capital's nighttime anti-drugs taskforce but were expelled from the police following their arrests in December 2022. Along with prison sentences, the prosecutor requested the confiscation of €600,000 from the bank account of Thierry C. and a €200,000 fine against Christophe J.
He describes turning to steroids after several spine injuries in the line of duty, the nightmares that haunt him from the day a tried to save a 2-year-old girl who drowned in a backyard pool, and the fateful morning where FBI armored cars drove onto his lawn and burst into his home with flashbang grenades while he poured milk into his kids' cereal bowls.
We demand a fair, transparent and just discipline process. What we have now is broken and riddled with petty vindictiveness, incompetence and outright corruption. When an official document is altered, with white-out, of all things, to reach a different conclusion, it should spur the police chief, city manager and city attorney to demand reform and hold wrongdoers accountable rather than doubling down to protect corruption.
Duncan Campbell, the celebrated Guardian crime reporter, writer and broadcaster whose work highlighted corruption, the shortcomings in the justice system and miscarriages of justice, has died at the age of 80.
