ATIP issues with Toronto Police Service

It may seem odd that a police department as large as TPS does things on the basis of a head nod, but that seems to be the case, even with a case as large as the Lost Boys.

Three things to remember. The first is that Lost Boy Jamie Lefebvre was not from Durham Region. He was from Scarborough which is under the jurisdiction of TPS. The second is that TPS Marine Division was called in to assist DRPS in the search for the boys. The third is that we do not really know if the boys died through misadventure on the lake or anything else.

It is critical in all open cases, cold or not, to preserve evidence and documents because you really do not know which direction an investigation will take.

Back to TPS. We filed an Access to Information Request (ATIP) in early 2021 for any reports or communications between TPS and DRPS pursuant to the Lost Boys case. I will not go into too much detail, but fair to say that they have two responses. The first is that there was no formal agreement to support DRPS... just a head nod. The second is that, under TPS regulations, documents must only be held for an unspecified period of time and are subject to destruction.

We have appealed this to the Information and Privacy Commissioner but TPS has covered themselves very well, so we may never know what they found when they supported DRPS.