No plans for an inquiry into Bruce McArthur case, Ontario attorney general says

The Ontario government says it has no plans to hold a public inquiry into the Toronto police investigation of serial killer Bruce McArthur.

A spokesman for the provincial attorney general says the ministry hopes that an independent investigation already underway into how police handle missing persons cases will address the McArthur probe.

Gloria Epstein, a former justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal, began her review last summer, but the McArthur investigation was excluded to preserve his right to a fair trial.

Last month, she called for Toronto's police services board to expand her mandate to include the McArthur case in light of his unexpected guilty plea.

Earlier Thursday, the board released a statement saying it had asked the Ministry of the Attorney General whether it planned to hold a public inquiry and it expected a response soon.

On Thursday evening, ministry spokesman Brian Gray said in an email that the province hopes Epstein's review will be enough to help improve Toronto police methods.

"It is our hope that Justice Epstein's review will be comprehensive enough to assist the Toronto Police Service in improving its practices and procedures related to missing person investigations, particularly those involving marginalized communities," said Gray.

"It is up to the Toronto Police Services Board to determine the scope of that review. Ontario has no plans to commence a public inquiry."

The Toronto Police Services Board request for information followed a newly unsealed judicial order which showed that Toronto police knew McArthur "had a link" to three of the eight men he pleaded guilty to murdering after interviewing the serial killer in late 2013.

Police questioned McArthur after launching an investigation dubbed Project Houston about a year earlier to probe the disappearances of Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi and Majeed Kayhan, all of whom were connected to Toronto's Gay Village.