As evidence mounts of Chinese, Mexican cartel and Iranian-linked penetration of Canada’s official institutions and its big banks — a dimension still largely unexamined outside testimony in the Cameron Ortis case, in which the RCMP’s intelligence director was convicted of leaking Five Eyes secrets to large-scale Toronto money launderers tied to terror and Iran — a Canadian judge has decided citizens must see the alleged police corruption that York Regional Police merely stumbled upon while investigating a plot to murder a senior jail official.
The conspiracy, allegedly directed from a jail cell, linked an accused Toronto fentanyl trafficker, a Toronto police officer accused of dealing drugs, and Gurpreet Singh, an alleged cocaine distributor for Ryan Wedding. Singh was being held in Toronto while fighting extradition to face trial with Wedding in the United States. According to separate police filings, he had also been held captive in 2024 by cartel members in Sinaloa, purportedly over a $600,000 drug debt.
Toronto Const. Timothy Barnhardt, who is accused of drug trafficking, allegedly exploited sensitive databases to sell the addresses of people targeted for murder and other violence by Toronto criminal networks linked to Wedding. The former Canadian Olympian has become a significant player for Latin American cartels, according to the U.S. government.
“The importance of public scrutiny in this case cannot be overstated,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Laura Bird wrote in reasons released September 16. “What is, perhaps, most concerning about the allegations of widespread police corruption in this case is the fact that the York Regional Police only stumbled upon it in the course of their investigation into the conspiracy to murder the correctional officer. They conducted a search to determine who may have recently queried the victim’s address and learned that Mr. Barnhardt had. There is no evidence that anyone was suspicious of Mr. Barnhardt or his associates until that moment.”
“That is something that should be of tremendous concern to the public,” she continued, “because it demonstrates that a trusted public official can engage in widespread illegal conduct and go undetected.”
Read the whole thing.
The Ottawa Police Service says reports of sexual assaults have increased by almost 24 percent during January to August this year compared to the same time period in 2025. Police also say 150 sexual assaults have been reported to the service since June 1. The CBC’s Rachelle Elsiufi spoke with Supt. Heather Lachine to find out what’s behind the surge.