Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw says the force is examining the allegations ‘very carefully.’Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw says the force is investigating allegations of antisemitism among senior officers made in a book by retired homicide inspector Hank Idsinga.
Chief Demkiw said the force approached Mr. Idsinga to participate in the internal investigation, but he declined.
“But I will tell you that we are examining the allegations very carefully,” said Chief Demkiw at an unrelated press conference Thursday. “We investigate thoroughly and completely.”
Mr. Idsinga’s recently published memoir, The High Road: Confessions of a Homicide Cop, looks at his 34-year career in the Toronto Police Service.
In the book and in media interviews, he has detailed alleged incidents of antisemitism that he says he experienced and witnessed in the force, but he has so far declined to name names.
In recent years, Toronto has been seeing an increase in alleged hate crimes, such as shootings targeting Jewish schools, synagogues and businesses.
In March, the Toronto Police Service announced a new counterterrorism unit as part of its response to violence linked to the Middle East conflict.
“For all of the years of reporting that I can recall as it relates to hate crime, the Jewish community has been the most vulnerable to hate and the rise of antisemitism is incredibly concerning,” Chief Demkiw said on Thursday.
In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Idsinga said the force’s Professional Standards unit sent him an e-mail on April 22 requesting to speak to him about the allegations in his book, which he declined.
He said two Toronto Police Service detectives showed up at the door of his home on April 23 to hand-deliver a paper copy of the same e-mail – just days after interviews about his book started coming out.
“I’m not interested in participating in any interview that will lead to an investigation by the Toronto Police Service that will go absolutely nowhere,” said Mr. Idsinga. “I don’t have faith in them to conduct an investigation like that.”
“I’ll let the book speak for itself. What I’ve got to say is in the book,” he added.
Mr. Idsinga said some of the people in the TPS’s Jewish Internal Support Network – for officers and civilian employees – thanked him for speaking out because they usually feel that they cannot do that.
As for other officers, he said they wouldn’t make formal complaints while working because it’s “career suicide” and they don’t trust in the system that navigates complaints.
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Mr. Idsinga, whose grandfather died in the Holocaust, said he feels for the Jewish officers who are still working in the organization.
“I think it’s gonna take more than a meaningless internal investigation to say ‘You know what? We’ve got a problem with antisemitism in the police service.’ We’ve been saying things like this for 30 years, and yet nothing is being done,” he said.
According to the Toronto Police Service Equity & Inclusion Survey from 2022, Jewish people make up 1 per cent of the force.
Chief Demkiw said he would meet Thursday with the executive of the Jewish Internal Support Network. He said he is committed to making sure the Toronto Police Service is “responsive to everything” it finds.