The Current - Inside the swarming attack that killed a homeless man in Toronto

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

New details have emerged about the 2022 swarming attack that killed a homeless man in Toronto, after a judge ruled that strip searches conducted on the accused teenage girls were unconstitutional. Toronto Star crime reporter Jennifer Pagliaro walks us through what happened that night, and why this judge’s ruling will affect sentencing.

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In December of 2022, one week before Christmas, a group of teens swarmed a homeless man outside a shelter near Union Station in downtown Toronto. Kenneth Lee, who was 59, was fatally stabbed in the attack. Eight girls between the ages of 13 and 16 were charged with second degree murder. More than two years on, several of them have pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of manslaughter and assault. Last Friday, an Ontario judge ruled that the repeated strip searches on those girls when in custody were unconstitutional. Many of the details heard in court were under a publication ban and couldn't be reported until now.

Jennifer Pagliaro has been covering the case since Kenneth Lee's death. Jen is a crime reporter with the Toronto Star and she joins me in studio. Jennifer, good morning. Good morning, Matt. Lee's death. Jen is a crime reporter with the Toronto Star and she joins me in studio. Jennifer, good morning. Good morning, Matt. This is such a story and it's a story of tragedy and it's a story of the criminal justice system. Let's begin with Kenneth Lee. What do we know about who he was? So Kenneth was the eldest son of his mother and his family, who his family said had never really been independent,

had struck out on his own. And so, quite late in life for a lot of adults had decided to leave his family home where he was with his mother and try to make his own way in the world. And we know that he didn't have any substance abuse issues at the time, but he found himself homeless at various points in that journey. But for all intents and purposes, people described him as a very gentle and kind person. He was trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. He had told his family that he recently had decided he wanted to help other people. He was seen as a mentor to other people in the shelters

where he stayed. And he was in the middle of that sort of process when he encountered these girls. What do we know about what happened that night and that week just before Christmas? So Kenneth Lee was visiting a sort of small concrete parkette. A lot of listeners maybe go by it every day. It's just outside Union Station in that sort of fork where university meets Front Street.

And it just has a bunch of planters. He was meeting his companion there who was staying at the nearby shelter. They had cups of drinks with them, looked like they were going to sit in the parkette and just have, you know, conversation and hang out. And it's kind of common for folks experiencing homelessness to sort of exist in these outdoor spaces. The girls had been traveling downtown from Yorkdale Mall on the subway, sort of creating mayhem along the way. They had been drinking, they had been smoking pot, they were going to go to a party, but

some of them broke off from a larger group of kids hanging out at the mall and came downtown. And it's in this parkette that they collide. And it's in a lot of ways a random attack, a random encounter. And Kenneth Lee was a victim who was in the wrong place at the wrong time when these girls arrived. What do we know? And again, the girls can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, but what do we know about the eight teenagers who were involved in this? There was a lot of speculation in the hours and days following this attack that they didn't know each other,

that maybe they met on social media, that they somehow came together and that this was a sign of the times in some ways. Kids meeting each other online and then mayhem unfolds. What do we know about that? Is that true? Or? Yeah, that's actually not true. And it was the most alarming thing that police said at the time. And I still am not sure if it was a misunderstanding on police's part when they were going through their text messages. But each of the girls had at least one other girl in the group that they were good friends

with. Some of them have known each other since sort of kindergarten. Some of them live in the same communities, like just down the street or in the same building. And they did meet up in this larger group, which they had like one of those massive group chats that kids sometimes use. And the plan was to go to the mall to drink and to smoke and to, you know, be without your parents as kind of a really common teenage activity. But what we know about the girls is that they come from all over the city and some of them from some suburbs in the GTA. And they all gave their parents various excuses for where they were going

that night. Now, some said, I'm sleeping over at so-and-so's house, and then some said they were going to a movie at the mall that has a Cineplex. And instead, they went to just hang out and do sort of teenager things. And they come from sort of a variety of backgrounds. Some of them live in community housing. A lot of them have very involved parents who showed up every single day in court when they were there. And, you know, having talked to some of them have very involved parents who showed up every single day in court when they were there and having talked to some of them were horrified by what happened. I want to come back to the parents in a moment because that's one of the questions that hangs over this. You have seen the video in court of the incident in which Kenneth Lee was killed.

How do you understand the level of violence that was committed by these young girls? It is a video that is very difficult to watch because of how violent the girls are. They are, at times, hitting him with weapons. One of the girls has essentially a wrench that she's hitting Kenneth over the head with. At times they have him backed against a concrete planter. And some of the girls are up on top of the planter sort of wailing down on him. You can see them kicking and punching him when he's sort of collapsed to the ground. And at times they actually are filming him on their cell phones. And we also saw the scene from that angle. And you can see that his face is bloodied

from the attack, and he's sort of swinging, trying to defend himself. But he was really overwhelmed by the group of girls that came at him. What is your sense, as you understand it, as to what their motivation was, why this was happening? The inciting event was that Lee's companion had a bottle of alcohol that was visible in her bag. And when the girls first arrived, Kenneth had walked over, it looked like perhaps

to talk to some of the other shelter clients that he might have known. And some of the girls followed the companion and actually grabbed the alcohol out of her bag. And one of them actually took a swig of it. And it seemed that they were motivated by wanting to have more alcohol. They had not had any with them at this point. And when Lee comes back over, it seems like his companion might tell him what had happened. And there's no audio on the video, but I imagine and the crown believed that he was trying to defend her, probably telling them to get lost and that's when one of the girls throws

a bag towards the adult pair and the rest of the girls sort of jump in at that point. Pete How do they, as you understand, how do they understand what happened? Lauren Some of them I think are still trying to process what happened. Some of them talked about being so drunk that they blacked out parts of the evening. You have to remember some of them were only 13 at the time. Though they seem to have experienced smoking weed, they weren't as experienced at drinking, which is often the case with young teenagers. And so the understanding was that they were sort of jumping in to what

they thought was protecting their friend. Some of them didn't see that like inciting event when the bag was thrown. And you can see later on when the police come to arrest them on body worn video, that it's clear some of them don't realize that Kenneth Lee had been stabbed and certainly not that he was dead. But there's also and this was skip ahead a little bit just in terms of time, there's also a voice memo in which one of them confesses or at the very least speaks about about what happened, right? Yeah, she clearly remembers, and this is the girl that had the wrench with her,

she clearly remembers what she says sort of jumping in to defend her friend. She talks about one of the girls that she says sort of kicked off the melee and then she talks about, you know, wanting to jump in. She's speaking very jokingly about it, so it's very jarring to hear her interpretation of it, but it's what you might imagine a teenager would say when they're recalling sort of a traumatic event and trying to sort of make light of it. But she certainly is very clear that she got in there and was pummeling Kenneth Lee. Pete Police arrived, these teens are arrested, they're held on and off in youth custody.

What happened to them in custody? This is a huge part of the story as well. Lauren Yeah, and it was such a surprising part. To be honest with you, even as someone who's covered crime and justice for the last decade, I didn't know that we strip search young people in custody. It just honestly hadn't occurred to me. We do? We do strip search young people in custody. And in fact, in the province of Ontario, where they are responsible for youth custody, youth detention, they are and have been routinely

strip searching young people in custody. These are, you mean the girls in question here are as young as the, as young as 13. Lauren Henry That's right. And they were 13 when they were arrested, somewhere as old as 16, but still very much youth. They are sent, girls especially, are sent to what are essentially facilities run by government contractors. The province doesn't actually have any directly operated facilities for female youth in custody. So they were actually sent quite far from the city to London and Kingston to two youth facilities there. They were split up.

And when they arrived, they were strip searched. Every time they went to court and returned, they were strip searched. And what was the understanding as to why they would be strip searched, why young girls would be strip searched every time, as you said, they came in and out of that facility? So from the facility's point point of view and several of the facility and ministry staff testified eventually in court about this, they believe that it is necessary to intercept possible contraband.

So, in their minds, that's weapons, anything sharp that could harm any of the girls or staff, any drugs, recreational drugs. And there's a really big difference between what's called a routine strip search, or sometimes called a suspicionless strip search, and a strip search where you might actually have cause to believe that someone has a weapon or drugs on them. And the difference there is that it matters whether you have cause to search someone. There's a reason that you're doing this. Yeah, like you might see something pass to one of the girls or someone might tell you that they saw that they have drugs in their room. And the first step would be to say like,

to confront that young person and ask them to hand it over. And then perhaps you would do like a pat down search, like a less invasive search. And if that still didn't work, then then you might escalate to a strip search. But what was happening with these girls and not just these girls, I should say this is happening to boys and girls in youth facilities across the province. They are just as part of the process of entering and leaving the facility, being strip searched regardless of whether they're suspicion. It was over 30 years ago that Clifford Olson first called me. Secret phone calls from Canada's most notorious serial killer.

I knew I was killing the children, but I couldn't stop myself. Now it's time to unearth the tapes because I believe there are still answers to be found. I'm Arlene Bynum from CBC's Uncover, calls from a killer. Available now. How did this come to light? How did people learn that this was happening? So one of the first girls who had her bail hearing in this case, her lawyer had a hunch when she saw a brochure for one of the facilities that mentioned that the youth

might be subjected to body searches. And one of the staff members from the ministry that governs all of these detention centers was on the stand. And she asked the employee about it who said that yes, body searches are most often strip searches. And when she described the process for strip searches, we also found out that the girls were made to strip completely naked, being that they were completely uncovered, no undergarments, and they were asked to spin around so that a female security guard could observe them. And I remember being in the courtroom and it was me, a few reporters, the girl's parents, and the judge. And you

could tell that all of us were alarmed. Pete The judge included. Lauren The judge included. Pete Tell us about, she is a character in some ways in this story as well. Yeah, she is. Justice Maria Sieravar is a very experienced youth court judge. This was at a time where the youth court in Toronto was still open on Jarvis Street and she has been doing this a long time and she seemed genuinely flummoxed. She said she was incredibly troubled by the knowledge of what you just described was happening

to these girls. Exactly. Not only was she surprised that they were being strip searched every time they came to court, she said, I'm compelling them to come to court and they have a right to be in court to defend themselves in person. But the consequence of that is that every time they're going back to the facility in London or Kingston, they're being strip searched. And so what did she want in terms of what was happening with these searches? Did she want them stopped? Yes, she ordered that this particular girl in this first case where it came to light, that she not be strip searched when she went back to the facility. And the following day, the lawyer

for that girl appeared at another hearing for a different girl and said that there was an emergency situation because when that girl was taken back to the facility with this judge's order not to strip search her, instead they essentially held her in segregation in her room and did not allow her to be part of the common areas where you're allowed to be with other girls or to interact with staff. The word that was used to describe how these girls were treated in custody was inhumane. Yes, that is the word that Justice Sirevar used. That's a remarkable word to use, I mean, for a justice to use.

Yes, and it was, I gotta say, Matt, it was kind of horrifying for me at the time because your listeners might know this, bail hearings are often under a publication ban because sometimes you hear a lot of evidence that might end up at a trial and you don't want to prejudice a jury. And it was horrifying to me to know that this was happening to these girls and not being immediately able to tell anyone. that this was happening to these girls and not being immediately able to tell anyone. Pete The impact of this is not just on these girls, but it had an impact on sentencing as well, right? The fact that they went through this every time they came in and came out and the justice was infuriated by what they were going through.

Lauren That's right. Eventually, it led to the girls either being transferred to a less secure facility while they were held without bail. And in several cases, it resulted in Justice Sieravar actually releasing them after considering the plan of what sureties they might have and how they could be at home. And when it came to sentencing, both levels of court have ruled that this type of treatment was unconstitutional. And it has impacted their sentences in that they have received reductions in what their possible sentence would be. So, none of them have received additional jail time because of the way they were treated.

Because of their treatment. In large part. because of the way they were treated. Pete Because of their treatment. Lauren In large part. Pete What is, what does this reveal? I ask you this as somebody who has spent more time covering courts than most of us have, obviously. What does it reveal to you about how, how we treat youth in custody? Lauren I think it really exposed

sort of the limitations of our youth justice system, but also in my view, it seems like the ministry may have lost sight of what it is that they were doing, because it was truly shocking to everyone that they could have misinterpreted the rules so dramatically as to forcing the girls to strip naked. The policy actually says, the ministry policy, that they should not be completely naked at any time. And so, for years, these facilities have been misinterpreting that. And even though the ministry does annual compliance inspections, it does a comprehensive four-year review, none of this was ever flagged and none of the policies were ever changed.

I mean, the other part of this is that a man was killed. That's right. And it's- And you can imagine his family. I just wonder how they would, how are they reacting to the fact that, as you said, there will be very little, if any, jail time for any of these young people who were involved in this, because in some ways of a procedural issue, in terms of how they were treated when they were going through the system.

Yeah, it must be incredibly frustrating. Kenafley's family has sort of only participated to the extent of submitting victim impact statements that were read by the Crown at sentencing. And you can tell that they are incredibly frustrated with the process. And I can imagine why, you know, at the center of this is such an inexplicable loss for them. And an inexplicable amount of violence. Again, one of the reasons why this story got so much attention was somebody was killed, but somebody was killed and a group of young girls were involved in this, that they were charged, that they were suspected of being part of this. And it was, it fed into again, that narrative of what kids are learning on social

media, how they're connecting, kids are just wilding out and what do we know about that? What did you learn in terms of, part of it's about motivation, but also how we think about that kind of violence? Yeah, it's also really striking, like even before the girls arrive in this parkette, there is a lot of surveillance from the TTC system of them. The transit system. Exactly, them making their way downtown. And there's a lot of violence that occurs in that process. They've not been charged with any of that. In some cases, those other TTC commuters

didn't stick around to report anything to police. But you see them pulling on people's hair on the subway, spitting on them, attacking a group of girls at a station. Do we have any sense as to what's going on there, what that is about? I get the sense that they were trying to stir up trouble. They're definitely the ones instigating on their way down the subway. And it's honestly very hard to make sense of if you're not a Gen Z teenager.

But I, you know, from researching and from talking to youth workers and youth advocates and youth themselves, I get the sense that young people are much more detached from the same reality as us. And they are experiencing a world on social media that just doesn't compute with what you and I understand about the world. And is this being recorded as well? Yes, they were recording themselves a lot throughout the evening and actually a very interesting fact that we learned at the bail hearings is some of these girls have actually been the victims of swarming

violence from other teenagers in their own lives. So they've actually experienced a similar level of violence enacted on them had it filmed, had the video shared with their friends and their school group. And I imagine that though it's I don't think there's a direct correlation, it certainly would have had an impact on them. You said earlier that the parents of some of these young girls were very involved coming to court every single day. The question that so many people asked in the wake of this were where were the parents? How did the parents not know what their kids were up to? Totally and it was also really hard not to share some of the stories that we heard at these bail hearings. Their parents and their guardians would testify to try to be their sureties

and have them come home. And you heard a lot of parents who, you know, for example, one parent is like a working class mom. She gets up early in the morning to go to a construction site. She is entrusting her 13-year-old daughter to get herself up and go to school in the morning. And that was a constant struggle. She was missing school in the morning. And a lot of these parents were dealing with, I think, what would be fairly typical teenage problems, you know, like skipping school, not coming home on time for their curfews, but had never been violent, did not have criminal records. And though they were struggling, there was never a moment where, you know, the police needed to be involved. And so they were struggling, there was never a moment where,

you know, the police needed to be involved. And so, for example, this particular girl, her mom thought that she was just in the courtyard with her friends in their complex. And she was supposed to be home at 9, 930. And, you know, around 9, 930, the mom texted said, Where are you? Are you coming home? And her phone was off and on. And you can kind of put yourself in her shoes. Her first assumption was like, oh, her phone died. These teenagers are never charging their phones. She must have gone to her friend's house.

She'll probably charge her phone and then she'll message me back. It never occurred to her that her daughter had gone up to Yorkdale and then had headed all the way downtown. And she kept trying to call her and saying, where are you, where are you? But it never occurred to her that she was the one that was causing harm. Her biggest fear was that someone might harm her daughter. That was her instinct. And so when you look at it from their perspective, having never interacted with the police in this way, getting the call that your daughter has been charged with second degree murder was just- Your heart would break. Yeah, it was just an upending situation for most of these parents.

Can I just ask you finally, I mean, you're a reporter and a journalist and cover this case, but you're a human being as well and you're there in this courtroom. What is gonna stay with you from this story? There were moments where it really hit home that these are children and what that means. There was a moment in the courtroom where this girl that I've been talking about, the mom who works in construction, she was sitting in the prisoner's box, she was still trying to get bail. And the judge, Justice Sirevar, as they often do, wanted to save her decision. She wanted to think on it, come back another day and decide.

And the girl's lawyer leaned over and explained what that means, that she wasn't going home. You're going to stay in custody. Exactly. And she was going to get sent back to the youth facility that she had traveled several hours to be in court in Toronto. And she started to cry. She was very visibly upset. And Justice Sieravar asked the

security officer, she noticed right away that the girl was struggling and said, are her parents able to come up here and, you know, be with her? The security guard, you know, whose job it is to protect everyone was like, well, it's technically not allowed. You're not supposed to approach the prisoner's box. And the judge just said, we have to have some humanity in this situation. And she said, I'm ordering that her parents be allowed to come up here. And her mom, I remember, came up and put her hands on her daughter as she was sobbing. And I actually had to leave. The proceeding was over, but I had to leave because I didn't really want to cry in court. It was incredibly moving because she looked so young, and I think the weight of what was happening to her was starting to hit everyone. And as much as I want to make

sure we center what happened to Kenneth Lee in this whole story, there's a lot of sadness and it extends beyond what happened to Kenneth Lee. There was also a lot of trauma that has taken place for these families and these girls. Jennifer, thank you very much for this. Thank you for having me. You've been listening to The Current Podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening.

I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.