Published Tuesday, April 13, 2021 5:32AM EDT
Last Updated Tuesday, April 13, 2021 4:53PM EDT
A long-awaited independent review has found “serious flaws” in how the Toronto police force handled a number of missing persons investigations in the city’s Gay Village and is calling for a new approach that would shift some of the responsibility for handling these files onto civilians and community agencies.
Retired Ontario Court of Appeal justice Gloria Epstein was asked to conduct the review back in 2018 amid public criticism that police had not done enough in response to a number of missing person reports in the Village.
The probe wasn’t initially supposed to include the case of serial killer Bruce McArthur as it was before the courts at the time. But its scope was later widened after McArthur plead guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder.