Inspector-General of Policing of Ontario Ryan Teschner at Queen's Park in Toronto on Monday.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Ontario’s Inspector-General of Policing is launching a provincewide inspection of police forces after the arrests of seven Toronto officers in a sweeping probe of alleged corruption and links to organized crime.
Inspector-General Ryan Teschner told reporters on Monday at Queen’s Park that he would appoint an external, independent inspector to examine the ability of all of Ontario’s police forces, and the local boards that oversee them, to “prevent, detect, respond to and fortify their organizations against corruption and ensure integrity.”
The provincewide scope, which also includes the Ontario Provincial Police, follows the revelations in Project South, the criminal probe unveiled last week that resulted in allegations against the seven officers and could extend to other police services. Three officers in neighbouring Peel Region were suspended late last week in connection with the investigation.
Mr. Teschner said a broad inspection across different services is needed to look at “system-wide” improvements and to restore public trust. The Inspector-General added that a report would be made public, and that he could use his powers to issue binding directives to police forces based on what is found.
The probe will be a test for Ontario’s new system of police oversight, which is just shy of two years old.
The inspection will look at the way officers are supervised, the screening that takes place at the recruitment stage and beyond, the safeguards around access to police databases and the way evidence is handled. The probe will also look at substance abuse by officers and the supports available to them.
Last week, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw and the chairwoman of the city’s police services board, Shelley Carroll, jointly wrote the Inspector-General to request an investigation along these lines in the wake of the arrests.
Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon, they both said they welcomed the inspection and that changes were already in motion inside Toronto’s police force.
Chief Demkiw said he was seeking suspensions without pay for six of the seven officers facing charges. He said the “nuances of the legislation” do not currently allow him to seek the same for the seventh officer. He did not say which accused officer he was referring to. (Ontario police chiefs were recently granted new powers to suspend officers without pay if they face serious charges that are not related to their police duties.)
Chief Demkiw also said he would not resign: “My job has been for some time and will continue to be to support the internal investigations conducted by York Regional Police and now others, and I’ll continue working in that position.”
Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw, left, and the service's board chair Shelley Carroll speak to media at City Hall in Toronto. They reached out to the Inspector-General to request an investigation in the wake of the arrests.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Changes on Toronto’s force are already under way, Chief Demkiw said, including the reassignment of a number of “very high performing staff sergeants,” effective Monday morning, to 12 Division in Toronto’s west end, which is the police district at the centre of the allegations.
He also said he was “enhancing the capacity” of the force’s professional standards unit, which investigates police misconduct, and establishing a working group to review internal processes.
And Chief Demkiw said he welcomed the announcement Monday by Ontario’s independent Law Enforcement Complaints Agency, which oversees complaints against police, that it will assume direct control of the misconduct investigation connected to the officers facing charges, which is separate from the criminal probe.
Both the Ontario Association of Police Service Boards, which represents the civilian oversight bodies for the province’s local police services, and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, which represents chiefs and senior officers, said they welcomed the Inspector-General’s initiative. In a joint statement, they called police corruption a “direct attack on public confidence.”
The provincewide inspection is the first major move by Mr. Teschner, whose role and arm’s-length agency are the result of long-delayed police reforms in Ontario that only took effect in 2024, despite legislation that had passed in 2019.
Mr. Teschner said an external inspector is needed to focus exclusively on the investigation. He hasn’t selected anyone yet and did not provide a budget or a timeline for the probe, which will cover 45 police services and likely involve a small team.
Mr. Teschner, a former executive director and chief of staff for the Toronto Police Service Board, was asked by reporters if the use of an external inspector was meant to address concerns that he was too close to the Toronto force and to Chief Demkiw. He acknowledged that the external inspector was an “important additional safeguard.”
The provincewide anti-corruption review was prompted by revelations last week, when York Regional Police investigators, called in to lead a probe into Toronto officers, said seven on that force were facing charges.
The allegations include leaking information to organized-crime figures, accepting payoffs and protecting drug trafficking networks. Investigators said some of the unlawfully accessed data was shared with gang members, who used it for extortion and shootings around Southern Ontario as part of turf wars in the tow-truck industry.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
The probe began after an alleged plot to kill an Ontario corrections officer was uncovered – and foiled – last June. Investigators said the officer’s personal information was allegedly shared with hit men.
The reviews announced Monday will serve as a key test of the new police oversight system in Ontario and its quarterback – Mr. Teschner.
“This is definitely going to be the case that may very well make or break their reputation and their credibility,” said Kent Roach, a law professor at the University of Toronto. “And I think they know that.”
But Prof. Roach questioned why the pending reviews will look at potential police corruption across all of Ontario, given that the problems highlighted so far in the Project South probe appear centred in the Greater Toronto Area.
Mr. Teschner has a long history of involvement in police oversight, dating back to meetings he held with police leaders when he was a member of the Toronto Youth Cabinet, a program for young people, in the early 2000s.
After he became a lawyer in 2006, Mr. Teschner worked with a retired judge on the hearings into the mass detentions carried out during the G20 summit in 2010. He was appointed Inspector-General in the spring of 2023 – a year before the legislation behind his powers even took effect.
“I’m very proud of bringing the IG role to life,” Mr. Teschner said in an interview with The Globe last month, calling the post “unique and one of a kind in Canada.”
With a report from Molly Hayes