‘Systematic prejudice’ and ‘serious flaws’ in handling cases of missing persons hamper the Toronto police’s investigation into a serial killer who preyed on gay and bisexual men in Canada’s largest city for seven years, according to an independent review which was announced on Tuesday.
The 161-page report states that ‘misconceptions’ and ‘stereotypical ideas’ about LGBTQ people have led police to overlook evidence and miss ‘critical connections’ during their investigation into the missing men and Bruce McArthur. , who pleaded guilty in 2019 to the murder of eight men, most of them people of color.
“There was institutional resistance to the idea that these cases could be linked and that a serial killer might be working on the LGBTQ communities in Toronto. This systemic failure is perhaps the most worrying,” said Gloria Epstein, a retired appellate court in Ontario. , said in the report.
Epstein said she “can not say that McArthur would necessarily have been arrested earlier if the investigative steps outlined in this report had been taken”, but she said the police force had “lost important opportunities to identify him as the killer”. . “
The report found that police were unable to communicate properly with the public about the investigation, which increases existing mistrust and ultimately reduces the integrity of existing and future investigations, rather than protecting it.
“This lack of communication reinforces the general impression that ‘the police did nothing’,” Epstein said in the review.
Interim police chief James Ramer said “the shortcomings were neither overt nor intentional.”
“There have been too many times that we have not complied with what we expect and in some cases are required to keep you safe, and the consequences have been serious,” Ramer said in a statement.
The report contains 151 recommendations to improve investigations into missing persons, including doubling the number of investigators assigned to the police’s missing persons department, from four to eight, and at social services and community agencies.
Jim Hart, chairman of the Toronto Police Services Board, said the force “does not meet certain policing requirements and our responsibilities to effectively involve the communities we serve.”
“It’s important for us to see what went wrong, and more importantly, the ways we can and should be better,” Hart said.
The 519, an LGBTQ advocacy group in Toronto, said in a statement that it hopes the review will lead to a real and meaningful change for all marginalized communities and that these recommendations will be considered within broader calls for accountability and ‘ a total re-imagining of policing. in our city. ‘
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