6 Toronto police officers charged in corruption probe were supposed to appear in court. Why didn’t they?
CBC
Six Toronto police officers arrested and charged in a sweeping corruption probe by York Regional Police last month were scheduled to appear in court Tuesday — most for the first time — except the courtroom was largely empty, save for their lawyers and the Crown prosecutors.
Their absences aren’t actually against the law. But because this is a high-profile case and none of the officers scheduled to appear Tuesday are in custody, questions persist about when they’ll finally make a public appearance.
Here’s what you need to know:
Six Toronto police officers, one of whom is retired, and seven civilians had court appearances scheduled for Tuesday.
The officers scheduled to appear were:
The officers’ charges range from conspiracy to obstruct justice to drug trafficking.
None of the officers were in court Tuesday because they got their lawyers to file a designation of council for them.
That designation means they can skip out on a chunk of their court proceedings and have their lawyer — or sometimes another appointed counsel under them, like a paralegal — show up for them instead, as outlined in the Criminal Code. Anyone accused of a crime can file for a designation, according to the code.
They will eventually need to be present when a jury is being selected, if a witness takes the stand to provide oral evidence and when their sentence gets handed out, among other criteria laid out in the code.
A designation is not unusual and is “entirely normal,” said Alison Craig, a Toronto criminal defence lawyer.
“[In] the first few court appearances of any case, nothing of substance happens,” she said.
“Really it’s more of a convenience issue than anything for most people. But certainly I suspect in high-profile cases many accused persons just don’t want their face to be out there.”
Craig did mention that filing for a designation requires some level of organization and funding and not everyone could have those resources secured in time for their first court appearance, especially if they are relying on legal aid rather than a private lawyer.
Out of all the officers charged in the investigation, only one is actually in custody. All the others were released on undertakings by police.
Police on the west coast of Newfoundland say a 27-year-old woman was arrested on Friday night for impaired and dangerous driving, after being caught speeding down the main road in the rural community of Piccadilly at 88 km/h over the speed limit.
Scientists are seeing tropical fish in Nova Scotia with more frequency, and their arrival is prompting concerns about what their presence could mean for local species down the road.
New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt says health care won’t be exempt from her efforts to cut spending — even though her health minister says big spending increases will be unavoidable in coming years.
Pierre Ny St-Amand, the man who drove a bus into a Laval daycare in 2023, killing two young children and injuring six others, has been declared a high-risk accused.
A former CTV and CBC reporter hired to serve as Manitoba’s trade envoy to the United States is taking home more than $480,000 Cdn a year in consulting fees, according to his contract with the province.
The teen who lit her classmate on fire at a Saskatoon high school returns to court on Monday to learn the judge's decision on her sentence.
On a July morning in 2024, Dwayne Cardinal was packing up his tent outside the Bissell Centre when a police cruiser pulled up and two officers got out.
The City of Revelstoke and the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District have passed motions formalizing their intention to push the provincial government to protect an old-growth forest.
The province will once again decide who will hold Niagara’s top municipal post after the sudden resignation last week of Bob Gale, but exactly when the next regional chair will be announced isn’t clear just yet.
A wind warning is in place for Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton on Monday with gusts as high as 90 km/h possible, according to Environment Canada.
Just a year after the Alberta government made a big splash unveiling its new border security team to the public with an announced $29-million investment, its latest budget shows the province only spent a third of the total it earmarked for the work over its first year.
Following several fatal collisions in northern Ontario this winter, a Sudbury, Ont., resident has created a website to track incidents across the region.
A Cambridge endometriosis advocate’s petition calling for change in how the disease is treated and recognized in Canada has received sponsorship by a member of Parliament.