Toronto cop resigns after period of 'egregious' misconduct, cut from payroll after appeal fails

A Toronto police officer who was still collecting paycheques a year after the force tried to fire him — for what a hearing officer dubbed a period of "egregious" misconduct — has resigned.

Former constable Matthew Brewer — whose list of misconducts included following his spouse with a handgun while he was in a "state of crisis," pepper spraying a handcuffed suspect in the back of a police cruiser, as well as impaired driving and cursing at a staff sergeant he believed was sleeping with his common law partner — is no longer being paid as of Tuesday, Toronto police say.

Hearing officer Supt. Riyaz Hussein, who is now facing impaired driving charges of his own, originally ordered in July 2021 that Brewer be fired unless he resigned. Brewer appealed that decision, so he continued to be suspended with pay until this month, per provincial law.

The Ontario Civilian Police Commission threw out Brewer's appeal on Aug. 8.

"The Toronto Police Service expects the highest standards of conduct from all its officers and staff, and holds them to account through disciplinary proceedings," spokesperson Stephanie Sayer said in an email statement.

"It was the Hearing Officer's view that Constable Brewer's behaviour fell below this standard and he should no longer be able to serve and protect Toronto's communities."

Documents from disciplinary hearings show Brewer had been dealing with both post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism, something David Butt, Brewer's lawyer, said is emblematic of the "tremendous toll" policing took on his client.

"These kinds of illnesses and these kinds of struggles are endemic to policing, to front-line responders," Butt told CBC News.

He said Brewer has been sober for over three years, and that it is disappointing that a "punitive approach" won out in this case over a "pro-health and pro-wellness approach."

Butt also said it is ironic the case's hearing officer is facing his own criminal charges for impaired driving.

Hussein is currently performing administrative duties pending the results of his own criminal and disciplinary hearings.

Hearing documents reviewed by CBC News lay out several criminal and internal discipline charges Brewer has faced in recent years.

The earliest is from Dec. 1, 2016. That's when, the documents say, Brewer was "in a state of crisis" and "under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs" when he brought a handgun into the room where his spouse was sleeping. He then followed her through the home with it, before putting it in his mouth and later firing it into the air when he was outside the residence.

He was later criminally convicted of common nuisance and unauthorized possession of a firearm, and received a suspended sentence with probation, alongside the forfeiture of five day's pay through the internal discipline process.