Disgraced Winnipeg police officer sentenced to 7 years in prison

Former Winnipeg police officer Elston Bostock has been sentenced to seven years in prison, after an internal investigation revealed years of corruption and other crimes — sometimes committed on the job.

While prosecutors and Bostock’s lawyers initially made separate sentencing recommendations of seven years and just over two, the disgraced officer accepted a joint sentencing recommendation for the seven-year term Friday, after the judge deciding the case indicated he was considering an even longer sentence, because there was no joint recommendation.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Kenneth Champagne said his decision as it stood at the beginning of Bostock’s sentencing hearing "comes out to 13.5 years," though he expected that could have been reduced after considering the principle of totality, which aims to avoid excessive sentences on multiple charges.

"Holy f--k," Bostock said in response from his seat in the prisoner’s box, covering his face with his hands and shaking his head.

"I accept that there was a plea bargain, but the parties have not made a joint submission on sentence. I hesitate to go along with it," Champagne said, adding trial judges are required to give lawyers notice if they are considering giving a harsher sentence than what prosecutors ask for, allowing them to make more submissions if they want to.

"Failure to do so risks having the harsher sentence overturned on appeal," Champagne said.

When lawyers returned from a brief recess to consider those comments, defence lawyer Richard Wolson told court Bostock had accepted the seven-year joint recommendation.

The seven years prosecutors asked for came as part of a plea deal that saw the Crown cap their request at six years for Bostock’s provincial offences and a year for his federal drug charge, on the condition that Bostock’s defence ask for a sentence of no less than two years for the provincial charges and a consecutive sentence of any length for the drug offence.

Bostock, 49, pleaded guilty last November to a long list of crimes, including getting traffic tickets voided in exchange for liquor and gift cards, stealing cannabis from a police scene, sharing confidential police information, and sending lewd texts alongside a photo he took of a topless woman who had fatally overdosed.

Earlier this month, he also pleaded guilty to federal charges related to selling drugs — including cocaine and psilocybin — to friends and other officers.

Bostock was charged after a lengthy investigation, dubbed Project Fibre, that began in April 2024 and found offences dating back to 2016. That probe was sparked by reports from confidential sources that Bostock was associating with and sharing police information with people outside the force involved in illicit activity, court previously heard.

While some of the discoveries about his conduct were made early on in the investigation, others didn't happen until Bostock's personal cellphone was analyzed following his arrest.

Prosecutors previously told court the team investigating Bostock uncovered intelligence reports and memorandums from the police service’s professional standards unit about him dating back to 2009, which indicated he "was a deeply compromised officer who engaged in drug abuse [and] trafficking, and leveraged his position to further criminal interests."

A report prepared for court found no evidence of psychiatric illness in Bostock, but did show he compartmentalized many of the difficult scenarios he faced as an officer, from infant deaths to suicide attempts, and self-medicated with alcohol and drugs for years during periods of depression.