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Mayor will 'speak up' for a 'broader inquiry' into police handling of Bruce McArthur case

Mayor John Tory says he supports a "broader inquiry" into the police handling of the Bruce McArthur case that "delves much more deeply into everything that happened."

'We won't rule out any further investigations,' Premier Doug Ford also said Wednesday

CBC News ·
McArthur pleaded guilty to killing these eight men. Top row, from left to right, Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40, Andrew Kinsman, 49, Selim Esen, 44, and Abdulbasir Faizi, 44. Bottom row, from left to right: Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, 37, Dean Lisowick, 47, Soroush Mahmudi, 50, and Majeed Kayhan, 58. (Toronto Police Service/CBC)

Mayor John Tory says he plans to "speak up in favour of a broader inquiry" into the police handling of the Bruce McArthur case that "delves much more deeply into everything that happened."

McArthur pleaded guilty on Tuesday to killing eight men, most with ties to Toronto's Gay Village, between 2010 and 2017. 

His plea ended years of speculation within the Village that a group of men who had gone missing from the neighbourhood were somehow connected. 

In 2017, Police chief Mark Saunders publicly dismissed the idea of a serial killer in the Village, drawing the ire of residents once McArthur was arrested.

Reports emerged later that police questioned, then released the 67-year-old landscaper sometime between 2014 and 2017. A professional standards investigation has been launched into that incident. 

An inquiry into police handling of those missing persons cases is also underway, led by Ontario Court of Appeal Judge Gloria Epstein. But that review is currently focused on how missing persons cases connected to the investigation were handled, and not on the probe into McArthur himself. 

Tory suggested that the reason for that is so that the inquiry doesn't interfere with the legal proceedings in McArthur's case. But now that the case is one step closer to conclusion, the mayor believes he may soon be able to call for an expanded review. 

"I am of the view that the excellent work that is being done and will be done by Justice Epstein... is good work, but I'm not sure it will be enough," Tory said Wednesday at a city hall press conference. 

"I think there may be a need for a broader inquiry that really delves much more deeply into everything that happened here," he added. 

It's a sentiment echoed by many in the Village. 

"There are a lot of unanswered questions," resident Stella Ducklow said. "I am less curious about why he did what he did and I am more curious about how it happened for so long, and how the community knew it was going on before the police alerted us."

Haran Vijayanathan, of the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention, said he is looking forward to the results of the current review. 
"I am of the view that the excellent work that is being done and will be done by Justice Epstein...is good work but I'm not sure it will be enough," John Tory said Wednesday. (Christopher Katsarov/Canadian Press)
"There's a sense of relief but there's also confusion and question in terms of why and when and what happened," he said Tuesday outside court following McArthur's guilty plea. 

As for a public inquiry, Vijayanathan said he will leave it to the victims' families if they want to publicly call for one.

The families, or even Tory, can request a review, but the decision falls to Ontario Attorney General Caroline Mulroney and the Ontario government.

On Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford congratulated the police service for their work on the case but added that, "we won't rule out any further investigations."

"Could there be improvements? 100 per cent there could be improvements," he said.

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