{"id":803242,"date":"2026-07-15T09:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/803242\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T09:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:59:15","slug":"ontario-system-to-report-dishonest-officers-may-have-missed-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/803242\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario: System to report dishonest officers may have missed cases"},"content":{"rendered":"

There may be gaps in a system that is supposed to report dishonest police officers after they lie in Ontario courtrooms, according to a review by CTV News.<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutors have a policy that requires them to report officers who were \u201cdeliberately untruthful\u201d on the stand \u2014 something they\u2019ve done 28 times<\/a> in a 10-year period, records show.<\/p>\n

But that list doesn\u2019t include 11 cases that were identified in a report from Western University<\/a> in a similar time period where Toronto or Peel officers \u201clied or provided false testimony.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discrepancy is a sign that the policy isn\u2019t being put into practice evenly. Opposition NDP MPP Jennie Stevens says that is something Ontario\u2019s government should address to make sure these officers face a disciplinary proceeding.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn overwhelming majority of police officers serve with integrity. But I want to be very clear: honesty in the justice system is non-negotiable,\u201d Stevens said.<\/p>\n

Last week in London, Ont., a judge tossed kidnapping charges against a 19-year-old<\/a> accused person after finding an officer forcefully kicked the man when he was already on the ground in a parking garage.<\/p>\n

The judge found that officer and others falsified their notes, and provided false and misleading testimony in court about the incident that was contradicted by surveillance camera footage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court must distance itself from this behaviour to maintain its just processes,\u201d Justice Kevin McHugh said from the bench last week.<\/p>\n

The London Police Service said it had already launched a review in the case.<\/p>\n

Provincial Crown attorneys have a policy that directs them to report \u201cif a trial Crown becomes aware of credible and reliable information that an officer has been deliberately untruthful under oath.\u201d<\/p>\n

A document obtained by CTV News through a freedom of information request describes 28 cases where the policy was put into practice.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t include those 11 cases identified by the Western University report<\/a> earlier this year, called \u201cUnlawful Enforcers.\u201d<\/p>\n

That included one case in 2014 where a Peel police officer was found to have lied about taking a Tony Montana statue from a storage locker during a search. Tony Montana is a fictional drug kingpin from the 1983 movie \u201cScarface.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Tony Montana statue A judge found an officer stole a Tony Montana statue from a storage unit in 2014 and lied about it, and found other officers knew about it as well but didn’t come clean, according to the 2026 Unlawful Enforcers report. Officers knew what the officer had done, but lied about their knowledge to deceive the court. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge found an officer stole a Tony Montana statue from the storage unit and lied about it. Further, the judge found that three other officers knew what the officer had done but lied about their knowledge to deceive the Court,\u201d the Western report said.<\/p>\n

Ministry officials didn\u2019t confirm whether the London case resulted in a report.<\/p>\n

But a ministry spokesperson said the FOI list may not capture cases prosecuted by federal prosecutors, cases that were subject to an appeal, or cases where a director exercised their discretion not to forward the matter to a police service.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is fundamental to the administration of justice that police officers\u2019 statements made under oath are truthful,\u201d said the attorney general spokesperson, Alexandra Wilkes.<\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There may be gaps in a system that is supposed to report dishonest police officers after they lie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":["post-803242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}