OPP to conduct review of Toronto police after Zameer trial

The Ontario Provincial Police say they will conduct an independent review of Toronto police after a Superior Court judge's comments during the trial of Umar Zameer.

Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw's office said in a news release Monday that he requested a review by the OPP into officer testimony, conduct, procedures, practices and training, which he said police governance "requires" when the courts raise concerns over police conduct.

"This request is currently in the earliest stages of assessment, however we can confirm that the OPP will be conducting the review," OPP Sgt. Robert Simpson said Monday

Demkiw has also ordered a full internal review of all aspects of plainclothes policing, including equipment and procedures for officer and public safety, his office said.

The move comes a day after a jury found Zameer, 34, not guilty of all criminal charges in the death of Toronto police officer Det.-Const. Jeffrey Northrup nearly three years ago. 

On Sunday, Justice Anne Molloy apologized to Zameer for all that he had been through during the last three years — something one legal expert noted as significant and unusual.

After the Crown finished presenting its evidence, Molloy noted the discrepancy between the witness officers' accounts and that of the prosecution's expert while speaking to lawyers in the absence of the jury. At one point, she said a theory put forward by the Crown but not heard by any witnesses or experts, was "not consistent with any evidence" shown previously.

At separate points during the trial, Molloy questioned the Crown's "morphing" position about what happened on July 2, 2021, at one point saying she didn't see how the jury could convict Zameer of even the lesser second-degree murder charge. 

"Let's just be blunt — I don't see how they can get to second-degree murder on this evidence because of the expert report and video," she had said.

Zameer pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder after he ran over Northrup with his car in an underground parking garage beneath Toronto city hall that night.

Both Northrup and his partner were in plain clothes, investigating a stabbing that night. Zameer testified he didn't know Northrup and his partner were police, instead believing his family was being ambushed by criminals.

Crown prosecutors alleged Zameer made a series of deliberate and dangerous manoeuvres while protected in his locked car, killing Northrup.

Molloy told jurors before they began deliberating that it was her opinion there was no evidence to fully support the Crown's theory, but that the defence's theory aligned with the video, the experts, and the testimony of Zameer and his wife. 

She also instructed jurors to consider the possibility of collusion between the witness officers, noting all three had the same incorrect memory of what happened.