Staff at the Toronto South Detention Centre have warned that their parking lot is too exposed to the public.Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail
Six years before police allege a database breach led hitmen to a correctional officer’s door, the Ontario government rejected a union proposal to make it impossible to search for jail staff’s personal information in its licence-plate database.
The security measure, meant to prevent jail workers from being identified and targeted, was summarized in the minutes of a 2019 meeting between government and union officials provided to The Globe and Mail.
The failed hit became the impetus for Project South, a York Regional Police anti-corruption investigation resulting in charges against seven Toronto Police officers, one retired officer and 19 civilians.
Three of the officers, as well as the retired officer, have been charged with unauthorized use of a police computer.
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Investigators allege that prior to the failed hit in June, Constable Timothy Barnhardt queried a police database for confidential information about the correctional officer before passing along the results to criminal networks.
During a Feb. 5 press conference, York Regional Police displayed a screenshot of one such database query with fields titled New Driver Search and Registered Address.
Police officers have access to multiple databases, including the Ministry of Transportation’s (MTO) vehicle and licence databases.
York Regional Police declined to confirm whether Constable Barnhardt is alleged to have used the correctional officer’s licence plate to search his personal information.
“As Project South is an ongoing investigation, we cannot discuss specific details, including any particulars that could relate to individuals, locations or investigative steps,” Constable James Dickson said.
But licence-plate security has been a union concern going back decades, according to former government and unionized staff as well as minutes from a meeting between the two sides.
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At an April, 2019, meeting of the Ministry Employee Relations Committee (MERC) for Correctional Services – a joint union-management body – the Ontario Public Service Employees Union asked several questions about “license plate suppression” for members, according to meeting minutes.
“Employer advised that the MTO does not allow for blanket suppression of license information for employees working in law enforcement,” the minutes state.
The item was subsequently removed from the agenda.
Adam Cygler, a current MERC member and co-chair of the union’s Occupational Stress and Injury subcommittee, acknowledged the 2019 request but said he couldn’t discuss the measure for security reasons.
“At various points in time, the union has advocated for enhanced security measures for our members due to the risks they are exposed to in the correctional work environment,” he said.
“Providing personal info for anyone in law enforcement or corrections is always going to be a safety issue for our members,” he added.
The issue had been raised before. In the early 2000s, the parking lot outside the former Mimico jail complex became a public safety risk, as people looking to settle scores with rivals waited outside for prisoners to be admitted or discharged for intermittent sentences, which require offenders to report for custody on weekends. On the morning of March 6, 2001, one prisoner was shot five times while leaving the facility.
Jail workers used the same lot, and the union raised concern that criminal factions were recording staff licence plates, said Nick Antoncic, a member of MERC as the manager of the ministry’s Employee Relations Unit until 2006.
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The province subsequently demolished the Mimico complex and replaced it with the Toronto South Detention Centre, where the targeted correctional officer worked. The identity of the officer is shielded by a court-ordered publication ban.
Staff at the new complex have similarly warned that their parking lot is too exposed to the public, according to one current and one former correctional officer, whom The Globe is not identifying because they were not authorized to speak on the union’s behalf.
The former officer said staff could apply for licence-plate suppression – where plate queries would show an MTO office rather than a home address – but the process is cumbersome and case-by-case.
The MTO confirmed that it operates an “application-based address suppression program for individuals who could face harm if their home address were revealed through driver or vehicle record searches,” but did not answer questions about who qualifies.
The MTO website states that about 3,000 agencies and companies can access its driver and vehicle information database, “including auto insurance providers, municipal and private parking providers, road tolling organizations, and others.”
Solicitor-General Michael Kerzner has yet to make any public statements about correctional officers’ safety in the wake of Project South. Ministry spokesman Saddam Khussain provided a statement saying the government has several support programs in place at Toronto South, “including peer-support programs and access to anonymous, stigma-free resources for public safety personnel and their families.”
“We will continue to support our correctional officers and have a process in place to review security related incidents to take whatever safety and security steps are needed,” the statement reads.
The attempted hit has shaken jail staff at a time of escalating safety threats. Ministry statistics provided by Mr. Cygler show inmate-on-staff assaults reached an all-time high of 1,249 in 2025, roughly double the tally from five years ago. Inmate-on-inmate assaults reached 7,307, up from 2,880 a decade earlier.
“When you’re looking at the year-over-year comparisons,” said Mr. Cygler, “it’s frankly out of control.”