The Ben Mulroney Show - Was it an episode of the Sopranos or a massive Toronto Police corruption case?

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

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the likes of which I've never seen. This is playing out like The Sopranos, Toronto Edition. The story matters wherever you are, and you should be concerned that this happened, that the Toronto police fell apart. They have a huge mountain to climb to regain the trust of a city that is tired of losing trust in its institutions. I want you to picture this. I want you to picture being in your car and you see a cop, a sort of a pay-duty cop, you know, maybe protecting a construction site.

And all of a sudden, some of his colleagues walk up to him and you're thinking, oh, they're going to chat about something. No, no. They read him his rights and they arrest him in broad daylight on a public street. This is the thin blue line folding up onto itself. We don't know a lot, but we do know this. Yes, a Toronto police officer was arrested yesterday in that capacity, but it was not related to the.

actions of the officer yesterday. It was related to the overarching case that we have spoke about. That was the deputy chief of the York Regional Police who conducted this investigation. And you would ask yourself, well, why did that happen? Why was York investigating Toronto? Well, here's what we know. Eight Toronto police members, seven active duty, one retired constable, are charged in what is now known as a sweeping corruption probe, allegedly leaking confidential police data that then fueled extortions, shootings, robberies,

and even a murder plot. Police chiefs called the case one of the most serious corruption scandals in Toronto police history, with 27 total arrests, 170 charges and seizures, including $600,000 in cash, for illegal guns.

We're going to get into all the other tentacles that include drugs going back and forth across the border, cannabis, coke, meth, fentanyl. But after you hear this news, there is a lot that has to be done. Once you absorb it, there is the natural inclination to ask if this is it and what does this mean for our trust in the police?

Let's listen to York Regional Police Chief Jim McSweene. I know you may feel shaken, confused. or angry about this news. Understand that we are resolute in our commitment to identifying, apprehending, and prosecuting everyone responsible for these reprehensible crimes. And look, I'm not going to make any predictions here, but what I heard there made it sound like this might not be over. There may be more threads to pull at that could lead to more arrests.

Some of these guys might sing for a lesser sentence. And next thing you know, there's a whole other swath of arrests. There might be another shoe that might drop. I want to give you the chain of events because, yes, this was a sweeping investigation. I've heard some people say it was long. I don't know enough about this to say whether it was long or short, but it started in June of last year. And after I'm reading you, 27 total arrests, 170 charges.

To me, that feels like they did a lot of work really quickly. But this is where it started, right? So June 2025, imagine living on your street. And imagine being a cop on your street. And then all of a sudden you see on your ring cameras or whatever cameras that masked men three times in 36 hours start casing your house. So there's a man who worked provincially in corrections. And he saw this on his ring cameras.

Probably alerted the York Regional Police because that's where he lives. Hey, something's going on in my house. A little weird. I got my family here. Can you do something about this? And so sure enough, they do. And they put together a sting with it involved, I think, a helicopter. And sure enough, a car.

shows up and they box him in and he tries to escape, ramming into the police cruiser in front of the police officer's house or the corrections officer's house, they arrest three guys. There's a gun in the car. So we know what they were there for. That's how this started. From there, investigators discovered that constable Timothy Barnhart ran unlawful searches in the police database, including this guy's address. Now, the question is, how did they go from arresting these guys to knowing to look into Timothy Barnhart's search history in the police database?

I can't say for sure, but logic dictates, I should ask the question, did those three criminals that got arrested sing? Like a canary. So they do this investigation. They find out all sorts of information. Weird queries that he shouldn't have been in his orbit at the time. be asking about. And these were queries that involved locations of shootings, extortion, robberies. This was the first red flag.

Again, allegedly, Timothy Barnhart was getting information that was proprietary and confidential and handing it over to criminals so they would know where to go. He was helping, allegedly, helping the criminals facilitate their crimes. and I saw a video during the press conference of the deputy chief of York Regional Police, Deputy Chief Hogan, and in it they showed police videos of criminals lighten up entire blocks, residential blocks of homes with what looked like semi-automatic or automatic weapons. They look to me from the distance. They look like an oozy and they sounded like one.

Just run-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-da-da-ta-da-stop. Bullets raininging down on homes in neighborhoods. Neighborhoods like where you live. Neighborhoods like where I live. Saw another video of another criminal. Lighten up a business. And then to think that that crime maybe wouldn't have happened, were it not for the help, the alleged help of this Timothy Barnhart.

I'm angry and I'm shocked. And I want more information. And I want the certainty, the absolute certainty that they have pulled out the rot in the police force from its root. And I don't want to be patient. I want it now. But back to the investigation. The pattern emerges. Detectives keep digging.

They find multiple Toronto officers accessing confidential information that later aligned with criminal activity. And this criminal activity, it wasn't just random. It linked directly to organize crime. So now the criminal connections are surfacing. They uncover the confidential intel was being passed on to known criminal figures like the tow truck underworld, illegal cannabis operations.

And at one point, after this investigation, during this investigation, they seize a gun during a Vaughn shooting. And it's connected to a guy named Kajon Doman. He was linked, or the gun was linked, to eight shootings across southern Ontario. and when they go to his house, they find confidential police information in his possession

tied back to that original Barnhart query. So the whole thing comes full circle. These guys know they're on the right path. Massive interagency investigation. More than 400 officers from York, Toronto, OPP, and corrections working together. None of it comes out. No leaks. No leaks.

Peasing together digital evidence, surveillance, financial records and internal police logs to finally give us what we're talking about today. There is a lot to be proud of in our cops here. Sadly, we're being proud of them for the shame brought upon them by these eight individuals

and perhaps more to come. I don't know. We've got so many ways we're going to be looking at this today. Don't go anywhere. The Ben Mulnery show continues. Woza is back at Food Basics and the deals are steaming hot.

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Only till February 11th. Shop in store or online at metro.ca. We are continuing our coverage of a developing massive story, the arrest of aid officers as part of multiple, multi-jurisdictional investigation into the Toronto Police Service. Eight allegedly corrupt cops taken off the street and arrested. And what happens at that point is, I got a lot of questions on when a cop gets arrested. When cops arrest cops, what happens next? And so to talk about that and help us understand what last night might have been like for these police officers and what's next why they got to be where

they are is Joe Newberger, a great lawyer and friend of the Ben Mulroney show. Joe, welcome to the show. Hi, Ben. How are you? Well, I'm here with a lot of questions and hopefully you can answer them. What happens to a police officer when they're arrested? Well, they're treated like any other accused. They have due process. They're presumed innocent and charges have to be, you know, prove to be on a reasonable doubt, but they'll be brought up for a bail. Some have, I understood, been released on undertaking. So they must be more preferable in the overall scheme and less serious allegations. But Joe, do you know or is it possible that they spent the night in jail? Yes. It could be quite possible. And if so, would they have been separated from the general

population of that jail? Yeah. So I was going to get to that. Yes. So the ones who are in custody right now in waiting a bail hearing are going to be in some sort of protective custody within the detention facility. So if they're held in a York, in a north of Steele's in one of the facilities up north like Penitang or Lindsay, they're going to be in a protective custody setting because they are a police officer. So they have to be treated differently for at least the initial phase of this. You don't want any security issues. You don't want anybody injured. You need to protect the integrity of everything. So they are treated differently that way. And then those who will have a bail hearing will have a special bail hearing, which will take some time to see if they can get released.

One of these cops, as the story goes, was arrested while on paid duty. I don't know what that duty was, but in my mind, they're always hanging out by a construction site. So that's how I'm picturing it. But have you ever heard of that before? My assumption was always that, you know, the police are going to assume the best of their of their colleagues. They're going to, you know, they're going to have their back, at least in this initial phase and they're going to try to do things discreetly. But the fact that they walked up to him on a street and arrested them right there, to me, what does that tell you?

Yeah. So this was a much more serious level of criminal involvement. We're talking about a highly organized scheme where police officers are used to access confidential information, provide that to sources for all sorts of reasons. So the multi-jurisdictional unit, along with the Crown attorneys who are involved, did not want any tip-offs, did not want to take any chances. They're going to make an arrest right away at the time that they think they should, regardless of whether they are on duty, paid duty, or sitting at home, they're going to make those arrests. Because if they give any heads up, they're worried about the destruction of evidence. They're worried about tipping off other individuals.

They do not want to taint the investigation. They went to arrest them. So that means everybody took this extremely seriously. And again, I don't have a barometer or a point of reference to know when something is impressive or not. But when I read that at its height, 400 officers from York, Toronto, OPP, corrections working together and no one knew, is that, is that an amazing secret that they kept? It's wonderful. Look, and I think, you know, when people talk about, you know, how bad our system is, this is a perfect example of excellent work. done by a multi-jurisdictional task force, including prosecutors from both the federal and

provincial teams. So it's great work. They did it so discreetly that nobody was tipped off, apparently. They obviously had wires up, and they were using all sorts of surveillance. And so it was a highly sophisticated investigation, executed extremely well. Unless you're Matt Damon in The Departed, you are, I always assume that cops. saw that. It's amazing movie, but he was corrupt before he even got into the, into the police. He was working for the Irish mob the whole time. And that's why he got into the police so that he could help the mob. I bring that up because unless you're him, I have to believe that every cop gets into the line of duty because they want to be a cop in the best sense of the word. How do cops

get corrupted? So, you know, Myron Dempkew made a very good common. He said it's not a reflection of the thousand officers in Toronto. Any big, large organization, there's going to be bad things that happen. And some people can get corrupted. And police are a target for organized crime to get them involved in their operations, either through digging up something on them, making them vulnerable, getting them vulnerable in a position and being able to manipulate them or enticing them with money or other things. So it just happens. And it's been going on for as long as organized organized crime has been going on. Is there, if we find out

that there was that they were induced through illegal means, you know, there was compromise on them or something, if we find out that that's how they got involved, is that a mitigating factor or not? It could be. So, you know, let's say hypothetically, and individuals

engaged in something they should not ordinarily do. They're gambling at illegal gambling sites and they get into debt to somebody who's in organized crime. And then that debt is used to manipulate them to get involved into this scheme. It's not really going to be mitigating. It's aggravating because they're already doing unprofessional conduct and they're in debt.

So it's not really mitigating, but you kind of understand it a little bit more than one who's just simply enticed by the monetary advantage. But if somebody is under duress, so for example, if there's somehow some threats directed at their family who may have been involved in something else peripheral with and they're threatening harm, if there's a duress argument, then that can actually be a defense or if not a defense can amount to serious mitigation. Okay, Joe. It's going to be very interesting to find out. Well, here's my last question. I want to spend the rest of our time on this.

You're a defense attorney. Yes, sir. In a scenario where you had a client that was brought up on charges and you were defending him and a police officer was brought to testify. And that testimony proved vital to putting your client away. If you found out later on that that police officer had been wrapped up in a massive corruption scandal working with the criminal element, similar to this situation here, what do you do? So let's say your trial is over. The client's convicted.

They're serving jail. And a year or two later, you find out that that officer was a key person in your trial. they had seized certain evidence, you will then write to the Crown Attorney's Office and advise them of this information and ask them that they are going to have to review the validity of the conviction, and you can appeal to the Court of Appeal on this as well. So there's mechanisms available to make an appeal and to review it, but you're going to be writing to the Crown Attorney's Office right away, and you're going to be writing to their head office about this, because that would strike at the integrity of the actual trial process and to the integrity of the conviction.

And so there is a process available. So this is a process that could be, there could be a lot of lawyers writing lots of letters about lots of cases because I don't know how long these guys have been around, but there's one, one of the arrested. He's a former cop. So he's at the, he was at the end of the road. This could, this could have a significant ramifications on the lives of a lot of people who are in jail right now.

Right. So it depends on what their involvement were. So if these officers were working within stations, they're sergeants, they're working with data, they're not necessarily on the road conducting investigations, they may be very peripheral to any case and have no direct connection. So we may be okay in that regard. I'm concerned that I read one was from guns and gangs, which is a highly specialized, excellent unit of the police service. So that could have far-reaching implications. But the police will have to do a very, very, careful review of the files that all of these officers had come into any contact with to determine if they were involved and if they tainted the investigations and if they're they tainted trials, et cetera. So there's going to have to be an extensive review. And lastly, and about 30 seconds if you can give this to me. I mean, look, you're right. With a big enough data set, of course, you're going to have people who don't belong bad apples. And when the police chief said that, to me, that was, that was, I take that for granted. That, that doesn't give me comfort because I know that already. I mean, anytime I see a cop, I stop and I say,

I thank them for their service. I know that one bad apple doesn't spoil a bunch, but the fact that this, so many of them were, I would expect a one or two. We wouldn't be talking about it all day if it was one or two. The fact that so many with possibly more to come is, it's shaking a lot of people today. Yeah, because in the last decade, I mean, we've had issues with the drug crime unit. So, you know, there's been a number of officers who are implicated in issues with respect to planting evidence and other things. And so that, so that in itself we've kind of forgotten about, but it does exist and it happened. But this is a little bit more of a shocking level, tied in, you know, somewhat to the tow truck incidents, the shootings. This covers everything from

conspiracy to commit murder to drug trafficking. So it really shocks the conscience. And it's going to have bruise on the trust in Toronto Police. Well, we're going to talk about that a little bit later. But Joe Newberger, thank you for being here. You answered a lot of my questions. I really appreciate it. Come back soon. Anytime, Ben.

Take care. Welcome back and our continuing coverage of the corruption that was uncovered, the rot that was uncovered inside the Toronto Police Service is our story today. And now we want to hear from you across this country because this is the type of thing when it comes out, people start sharing their story. that they might not have otherwise shared. We saw it with Harvey Weinstein. You know, when a bad guy is exposed,

then people who are affected by the bad guy, they come out. And before I take your calls, I want to play a call from a little bit earlier of a former police officer who worked in organized crime enforcement with some of these guys, he said. Here's what he had to say. Well, as soon as we heard about last night,

you know, your phone's going off. People, you know, ex-officers. Like, I worked in organized crime enforcement. I'm sorry, where I retired out of them. and to take all these officers good work, not the, what I'm saying, not the accused officers, but officers work in organized crime enforcement, guns and gangs, all those cases, these officers had any, touch any of these cases that are all in jeopardy being thrown out. So, you know, we're pissed off, like, beyond it.

As far as I'm concerned, and, you know, I teach now, and I told my students this morning, I said, they shall be in the penitentiary. If it comes, you know, you're innocent and proven guilty. however, the penalty should be much more harser for police officers because you get paid very, very well as a police officer. It's sheer greed if you're taking money. And, you know, if you have a public trust, your penalties should be much more higher than the average citizen in my opinion. Well, that's right. The job that you have requires trust, and it's trust that has to be built and earned every day.

That's why police officers go out into their communities, and they try to get to know those people. I can build trust in those communities. And to hear that they were facilitating crime allegedly is like hearing that firemen are going out there lighten fires. Like you're doing the opposite of what you're hired to do. You're supposed to put out the fire, not light them. And so, yeah, maybe he's right. So I can understand why people would be angry today.

Let's get back to the phone lines here. Grace, welcome to the show. Hi. How are you? I'm well, thanks. Good. So I hear your outrage. Well, it's not outrage.

I appreciate that how well the cops investigated their own. It's what they're accused of. It's what they're accused of that makes me angry. And I don't, I'm not here to dispute that. I just want to maybe put in a little perspective that there are approximately 7,600, Toronto police officers. And this is, you know, a group. But let's look at the big picture that we have a lot of great officers.

And we also have a chief that took a nonpartisan approach to encourage, or not to encourage, but to get a different police division to investigate it thoroughly. Well, partly, yeah. Well, part of me thinks, and I don't know every aspect of the story. I'm learning it in real time. But it feels to me, I think York region started investigating it because the genesis of it, the initial crime happened in their jurisdiction. And from there, they just followed where the leads took them.

And that took them into the Toronto Police Service. At that point, I'm sure they had to tell Myron Demkew, hey, we're watching the watches here and we're not liking what we're seeing. But he had to, they had to coordinate with his office at that point. So I'm sure, listen to, yeah, like I said, this. Just to respond to your point. As a Torontoian, I am not disappointed in the Toronto Police Force because if we look at it, the vast majority of the officers are there to do a great job.

On my way into work today, I stopped my car at an intersection to roll down my window to tell the police that I saw that to thank them for their service. I 100% co-signed that, but we do have to deal with the problem. I got to run. I got to run. And we've got to, he's going. Salty former cop. Hello, salty former cop. Thank you for your service. Hi, Ben. How are you? How are you? I'm doing, Ben. How are you? I'm doing okay. I'm a little bit fired up.

I'll tell you right now. I feel so sorry for those men and women at Toronto Police that have to put that uniform on today. Because there's a lot of great police officers out there. And my hat goes off to the York Regional Police for keeping this major investigation so tight. Yeah, yeah. That goes off to them. And I'll tell you right now, when I was watching that CP 24, I'm looking at Dempue going, that's your replacement. York Regional Police because no one should be given out that Intel information. Who was put in charge of their CI information in Toronto Police? Yeah. What is going on there? And then people are all up going, oh, why did they contact Toronto Police?

Well, they obviously had to do something to get the dirt on these corrupt users. And one more thing, what cop retires at 28 years? They were already on to this guy that retired because you've got to have 30. Ah, interesting. Not right here. Let me ask a question. I'm fired up because you're fired up. Are you angry?

Are you angry? I'm furious. I'm disgusted. Yeah. I mean, I'm disgusted and I'm hurt because I got friends, family that got to put that uniform on today. And you know what? They're human beings and they do something that most people don't want to do or they think that they can do.

Well, and I'll tell you why. Like, I'm a big supporter of the police writ large. And there are there are people in society who will take a rumor or a bald face lie and weaponize that against police. and then the police have to push back against that. This looks like increasingly not a lie, not a rumor, but a fact, that's harder to push back against. And you know that there are well-motivated, well-funded groups out there who want to see the police marginalized.

They want to see the police demonized. This is going to make it really hard to fight those people. Absolutely, I couldn't agree with you more. And then, you know, where there's smoke, there's fire, about a week and a half ago, you had the Surrey mayor reaching out to the RCMP. Five years ago, Surrey, Surrey wanted independent police department. Why is that, Ben?

They didn't want to have control over the RCMP. Now they have control over the RC&P and their police services board and the South Asian and the corrupt criminal organization have some kind of influence. It stinks. It stinks. It stinks. Anyways, thank you for taking my call.

Absolutely. To all those people that got to put that uniform on today, hold your head up high. Absolutely. Hey, thank you so much. Thank you, salty former coppa. We're going to take this call from Johnny. Johnny, where are you calling from?

Toronto. Okay. And what do you think about all this? Firstly, I'm going to say this too. And sorry, you're going to get upset with this, Ben. But I think there's a lot more corruption in the police force than lets on. And I think this is just the start of it. Because police can get away with murder, literally with murder, and not have to face the wrath. But what I called in about is police have union lawyers who are now going to defend them. I understand these police officers need lawyers if they get into a car accident and somebody is aggravated for that, or they misfire their gun and they need a lawyer for that. But now they are going to have high-priced attorneys defend them.

Well, I mean, look, but it's, it's, no, hold on second. Stay with me, Ben. Okay. These lawyers are going to be caught. These are lawyers are going to be paid for by the union. I understand that some of that money comes. from the police officers themselves. But if you worked for GM or you worked for Canada Post

or worked for Air Canada and you were charged with these crimes, they would fire your ass, okay? And they would say they wouldn't allow you to use the union lawyers to defend you. Well, you know, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I got to jump in now. I got to jump in now. Hold on. We have to have a conversation here. I'm the one who rants, my friend. But no, look, I can't speak to your hypothetical about GM or Canada Post, but I will say that in all cases, whether you like it or not, the fundamental principle of our justice system on which everything relies, everything, is the fundamental belief that you are innocent until proven guilty. And you have the right, the God-given right to a fair and speedy trial. If you start saying that, oh, well, you should only get your lawyer, if you discharge your weapon,

I mean, we can't pick and choose. You can't pick and choose at all. And these guys, as much as I'm concerned with the allegations, are fighting allegations. And they could be found guilty. But until a judge says so, they're not guilty. They are innocent. And you have to accept that. And if you accept that, then they are entitled to the lawyers that they have paid into the system for.

So a judge said so, they're not worse. Ben. Yeah. Let me say this. Okay. And I can say it in 20 seconds because we're running out of time. I'll say this. I can guarantee you GM and Canada Post is not paying for those lawyers.

Also, I will guarantee you these charges get stayed eventually because they don't want the stain on the uniform. And they are going to cover this up like no tomorrow. I don't know if that's the world we're living in. I don't know if it is. But, well, hey, listen, that's a theory. We'll wait and see. Johnny, thank you for the conversation. I appreciate it.

Intel chain is compromised. New on Showcase. You were hacked. You're telling me it's real. Someone's been watching and listening through you. Simulio. We can either attempt to remove what's in your brain or we keep back open. Melissa Barrera.

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