The burned remains of a tow truck on Hartwell Way in Aurora, Ont., in February, 2020.Fred Lum
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A wide-scale investigation into police corruption in Ontario – Project South – led to the arrests of 27 people, including seven Toronto Police Services officers and one retired Toronto Police officer. The allegations range from a conspiracy to traffic Toronto Police uniforms, to selling data to members of organized crime groups, to a plot to murder a corrections officer. But one of the civilians charged in the operation had links to the tow truck industry, which has a documented history of violence and criminal connections.
That led Globe and Mail reporter Molly Hayes to question what links exist between the police corruption investigation and the industry. She has reported on violence and corruption in the towing industry for years. Today, she joins the show to talk about why towing has been so prone to corruption, and its ties to a major criminal investigation.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
Editor’s note: In a previous version of this episode, Mark Lesko is incorrectly referred to as former acting attorney general. He later became an acting assistant attorney general, but during the period discussed in this episode, he was an acting district attorney. That clip has been re-recorded accordingly. (This is a correction to the previous note published March 12, 2026.)