Ontario's Inspector-General of Policing Ryan Teschner has vowed to hire an outside official to conduct a provincewide review of police corruption.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
The office of Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner is the latest agency to launch an investigation related to the sprawling allegations in the Project South police corruption probe.
In an e-mail on Friday, Privacy Commissioner Patricia Kosseim said her office hasn’t been officially asked by the government to consult on any matters related to Project South, nor has it been notified of any privacy breaches by police.
But “in light of information that has come to light publicly, the IPC has opened an investigation into the matter,” Ms. Kosseim said.
The Project South probe, announced by the York Regional Police in early February, has so far led to criminal charges against 27 people, including seven members of the Toronto Police Service and one retired Toronto police officer. Three Peel Region police officers have also been suspended.
Drug charges previously dropped against central figure in Project South probe without explanation
York Regional Police detectives who led the takedown say that organized crime figures purchased data and addresses from Toronto police officers. They allege that criminals used this information in shooting and intimidation campaigns, including an attempted hit on a corrections officer who was allegedly targeted at his home.
The Project South corruption scandal is being investigated by several Ontario watchdog agencies.
The province’s Law Enforcement Complaints Agency says it will launch a professional misconduct probe against the seven Toronto officers who were charged. LECA says it will also be looking at three Peel Regional Police officers who were suspended in the fallout.
Meanwhile, Ontario’s top police watchdog, Inspector-General of Policing Ryan Teschner, has vowed to hire an outside official to conduct a provincewide review of police corruption. However, no details about the review have been released yet.
“The Inspector General’s priority is to begin this province-wide inspection promptly,” said Rima Amri, a spokeswoman for Mr. Teschner. In an e-mail, she said the pending review will look at several issues such as “access to police databases and information systems, including permissions, controls, and clearances.”
Such issues are not new for privacy commissioners in Canada. For years they have collectively highlighted the perils of invasive police technologies, including leaks of people’s private information from an ever-growing array of law-enforcement tools and databases.
Ontario police charge seven people in drug trafficking investigation
Just over a year ago, for example, Ontario’s IPC sounded an alarm after the provincial government encouraged more widespread police use of automated licence plate recognition.
“Policies should prohibit officers from using the manual search function for reasons unrelated to an active and open criminal investigation,” the IPC said in its December, 2024, guidance document. “Police should configure ALPR systems to log all manual searches, and the log should include the identity of the officer conducting the search, the date, time, nature of and reason for the manual search and any associated file numbers.”
RCMP-led Criminal Intelligence Service Canada this winter issued a public report saying that organized crime groups across the country are seeking to infiltrate police databases and corrupt civil servants.
Ms. Kosseim points out that legislation was recently amended to make it mandatory for provincial institutions to notify her agency of privacy breaches.
Yet, there remains a significant loophole: There are no statutes telling municipalities to make these same sorts of disclosures. This includes the City of Toronto and its large police force, whose officers are allegedly implicated in Project South.
Ms. Kosseim said the Project South case is “stark example” of why her office continues to call for similar amendments to municipal privacy legislation, “to ensure consistent breach notification requirements across all public institutions in Ontario.”