Judge retires for missing persons review
Process to launch next month into how police handle cases in wake of men’s deaths
The judge leading an independent examination of Toronto police missing persons investigations in the wake of deaths linked to alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur says she chose to end her 25-year judicial career in order to conduct the review. Addressing the Toronto police board meeting Thursday, Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Gloria Epstein said she would “hit the ground running” on the review immediately upon her retirement from the province’s highest court next month. Among the first items of business will be launching a “broad consultative process” to include public and private meetings. “The work of the review is of critical importance to our diverse communities within Toronto and specifically to how missing persons investigations are done, and should be done, particularly as affecting marginalized or vulnerable communities,” Epstein said, speaking to the board for the first time since being tapped to head the review in June. The judge told the board she could make no stronger statement of her commitment to the review “than by indicating that I chose to retire from the Court of Appeal to enable me to devote my time and my energy to this critical work.” The independent review was unanimously approved by the board earlier this year, following mounting questions about police handling of the disappearances of men now alleged to be victims of McArthur. The 66-year-old landscaper is charged in the deaths of eight men between 2010 to 2017, most of whom had ties to the city’s Gay Village. Since McArthur’s January arrest, police have faced criticism that officers ignored or downplayed community fears of a serial killer preying upon the LGBTQ community downtown.
Most of the men McArthur is alleged to have killed were reported missing to police, and concerns have been raised about how thoroughly officers probed those disappearances. Three of McArthur’s alleged victims were the subjects of a special Toronto police missing persons project, which ran from 2012 to 2014 but ended with no arrests.
“This independent review was prompted by the tragic deaths of members of our community and, more specifically, by deep concerns expressed about how the Toronto Police Service conducted the investigations into their disappearances,” Epstein said.
The judge acknowledged that questions have been raised, too, about whether the handling of missing persons investigations could have been “tainted by systemic bias or discrimination,” and whether the policies and procedures in place “adequately protect against implicit or explicit bias or discrimination” against members of the LGBTQ2S+ community or marginalized groups.
Epstein said she anticipates the review will be completed by April 2020, a date she said gives an indication of the “large task that awaits me,” she said.
Except for a few minor changes, Epstein largely adopted the terms of reference drafted by a committee of community members earlier this summer. That included that the review must examine how officers probed the disappearances of men now alleged to be McArthur’s victims, provided that did not jeopardize the ongoing investigation or criminal trial for McArthur.
“There are a lot of questions about these specific investigations,” Shakir Rahim, a member of the working group and a board member with the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP), previously told the Star.
Rahim said the working group concluded the review could examine part of those missing persons investigations without impacting the McArthur case.
Epstein reiterated that the review would not prejudice the criminal proceedings, though she said that as a result of that limitation “many areas remain unexplored.” She says she plans to identify those areas along with her recommendations once the review is completed.
McArthur is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Majeed Kayhan, Selim Esen, Andrew Kinsman, Dean Lisowick, Soroush Mahmudi, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi and Kirushnakumar Kanagaratnam.
Toronto police continues its own internal investigation into how it conducts missing persons cases, work that includes the creation of a new missing persons unit.
The police service has also faced criticism of its handling of disappearances not linked to McArthur, including the recent deaths of Alloura Wells and Tess Richey.