Crime

Two Toronto police officers racially profiled a group of Black and brown men sitting in a car waiting for a friend outside an apartment building, “completely invented a reason” for stopping them and then “tried to cover it up” in court, a judge has found.

In her decision critical of the “well-meaning rookie officers,” Superior Court Justice Tamara Sugunasiri excluded the evidence police said they found on a man sitting in the backseat — a loaded gun and fentanyl — and acquitted him of all charges.

“Race clearly informed the officers’ decision to detain,” Sugunasiri wrote in her decision last month.

The RCMP says 41 Canadian-linked victims and suspected perpetrators have been identified through Project Medusa, a multinational law enforcement operation targeting online networks linked to drug-facilitated sexual assault.

“The project focuses on identifying and disrupting online networks linked to drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA), particularly offences occurring in intimate-partner settings and facilitated through online communities,” it said in an email to CTV News.

Prosecutors appear to have dropped several charges against the main targets of the Project South police corruption probe as the Crown moves to take the most serious allegations to trial.

Earlier this month, the Crown obtained direct indictments against all but one of the seven arrested Toronto officers, and seven other Project South accused, meaning their cases will bypass preliminary inquiries and go directly to trial in Superior Court.

Police investigating the alleged murder of Ann Widdecombe say there is “nothing to suggest it was politically motivated”.

Devon and Cornwall Police added they are not looking for anyone else in connection with her death, following the arrest of a 28-year-old white British man in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, on Saturday.

The former MP and MEP, 78, was found dead at her home in Haytor, Devon, on Thursday, having sustained serious injuries. Police believe she had been attacked almost 24 hours earlier.

Police in the UK are so politicized and their record of honesty so suspect that no one should trust this finding.

The senior corrections officer targeted in an alleged murder plot that sparked the Project South probe into police corruption defended his work at Toronto South Detention Centre in court Thursday in response to allegations that he oversaw abusive practices and threatened inmates.

The allegations come from current inmate Joshua James Malcolm-Evans, who has already pleaded guilty to gun-trafficking charges unrelated to the Project South investigation.

Malcolm-Evans has filed a Charter application arguing his rights have been violated by the jail, and he is looking for a shorter sentence or stay of proceedings in his case.

A woman is facing assault charges after allegedly stabbing another woman during a road rage incident in Oshawa on Canada Day.

Durham Regional Police were called to the area of Lakeview Park and Simcoe Street around 7:20 p.m. on July 1.

Investigators say a 53-year-old woman was involved in a road rage altercation with a 20-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman. The 53-year-old woman allegedly brandished a knife and the other two people responded by deploying bear spray.

Pity there’s no video!

Becky Hamber, 47, and Brandy Cooney, 45, were sentenced today in a in Milton, Ont., court to life in prison after being found guilty of murdering a 12-year-old and torturing his younger brother. They also were given consecutive, concurrent terms for forcible confinement and other crimes.

As Project South investigators swept across the Greater Toronto Area, arresting several cops as well as the network of alleged criminals they’re accused of conspiring with, a group of officers descended on a North York car lot.

During that Feb. 4 raid on Lecos Auto Sales, officers seized a Ford F150 that was listed for sale.

According to authorities, the truck had a vehicle identification number belonging to another F150 that had been shipped out of Canada in 2024. The vehicle’s “true VIN,” authorities allege, matched that of a truck that had been stolen from Toronto streets nearly two years earlier.