The lawsuit was filed after a criminal court judge found the whistleblower’s Charter rights had been violated and charges against the whistleblower were stayed. “The police encouraged TB to go out on a limb and then saw off the limb behind him/her,” Ontario Superior Court Justice F. Bruce Fitzpatrick wrote in his reasons in a 2020 decision. Fitzpatrick omitted details that could identify the whistleblower, whose initials are not TB. He did not name Peel police or identify the officers. CBC News has located a statement of claim from a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by a whistleblower and his family against Peel Regional Police, individual officers in the force west of Toronto and the province of Ontario. The facts described in the document align with the facts described by Fitzpatrick in his decision. “The police deliberately, blatantly and calculatedly exposed TB’s identity,” Fitzpatrick wrote in his ruling. Police tricked the man into believing he was not being recorded while he was unknowingly captured on camera providing information about serious crimes, according to the statement of claim.

The criminal charges remained

As a result of the police’s conduct, Fitzpatrick accepted TB’s application for a stay of prosecution and said his Charter rights had been breached. The officers named in the whistleblower’s lawsuit deny his allegations, which have not been tested in court. Peel police say none of the accused were disciplined. “We have become aware of this matter as a result of a court finding,” Charles Payette, executive director in Chief Peel’s office, said in an email. “An internal investigation followed and no wrongdoing was established.” A Peel police task force investigated what Fitzpatrick calls “a series of serious crimes” in 2016 when officers arrested TB on unrelated charges. TB was the only suspect in the serious crimes, according to Fitzpatrick, and task force members planned to place a tracker on his car and introduce him to an undercover officer.

The officer “pulled a trick,” the judge said

The plan went south when TB returned to the arresting officers’ car, but agreed to an interview while in custody. When TB asked for a camera to be turned off, the interviewing officer, who was not part of the task force, “pulled a trick,” according to Fitzpatrick: He said the TB recorders were off, then transferred him to another room. The man was then captured on camera providing information on murder, drug trafficking and other crimes, according to his statement. About three months after TB’s interview, police arrested a man Fitzpatrick calls “Mr./Mrs. X,” who was once another suspect in the crimes TB was accused of. X had not been charged with anything at the time, Fitzpatrick said. Two task force officers told X that the TB had identified X as the mastermind of serious crimes. When the police told X that TB’s statement was recorded, X asked to see it. The officers obliged, according to Fitzpatrick. The whistleblower’s statement of claim identifies a man, who appears to be the same person Fitzpatrick calls “X,” by his full name. X watched parts of the video twice, and police said he planned to play it for “`five, six, seven of these people’ who have been involved in TB,” Fitzpatrick said. “The interview with Mr/Ms X was a set-up by the police to ensure that what TB had told them about other people who had allegedly committed criminal acts was shared with the wider crime branch.” X said they planned to speak to the TB police and then released X.

“Razor Weapons”

The whistleblower was watching television in a common area of ​​the Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton, Ont., in January 2018 when another inmate put him in a chokehold and pulled him to the floor, according to his statement. Two others participated in the attack. The men called TB a “rat” and slashed his face with “razor-like weapons,” Fitzpatrick said. The judge said the brief attack appeared “premeditated” after watching it on video. One of the perpetrators was allegedly held separately from the informant after he considered him a “rat” and threatened him, according to the statement of claim. The whistleblower was watching television in a common area of ​​the Maplehurst Correctional Complex in January 2018 when another inmate put him in a choke hold and pulled him to the floor, according to a statement of claim. (Evan Mitsui/CBC) A corrections officer saw “a large pool of blood near the television” after responding to a radio report about a fight in progress, according to an incident report obtained by CBC News through a freedom of information request. “There was no direct evidence linking Mr/Mrs X to the perpetrators. However, I find, on the balance of probabilities, that TB was attacked … because of information available to other prisoners,” Fitzpatrick said. “This information came from the revelations made to Mr./Mr. X while in police custody.” According to the statement of claim, the whistleblower “clearly bears the marks of the assault on his face.” The allegation only partially identifies the interviewing officer and Peel’s investigative team by their last names. Payette did not respond to questions about the officers named in the lawsuit and said they would not comment. A confidential informant who was injured in a jail attack by inmates after his identity was revealed to police has launched a multi-million dollar civil lawsuit against Peel Regional Police. The lawsuit was filed after a criminal court judge found that the whistleblower’s Charter rights had been violated and the charges against the whistleblower were dismissed. “The police encouraged TB to go out on a limb and then saw off the limb behind him/her,” Ontario Superior Court Justice F. Bruce Fitzpatrick wrote in his reasons in a 2020 decision. Fitzpatrick said he agreed with the Crown’s submission that the interviewing officer did not expressly promise TB confidentiality, but said officers were wrong to believe the interview did not make him a confidential informant. The interviewing officer offered TB help with a bail application in exchange for information, Fitzpatrick said, and spoke of establishing a “professional relationship” with TB
TB was a confidential informant after the interview, Fitzpatrick said, a status that binds police to protect the individual’s identity.

“Almost absolute privilege”

The Ontario Crown Prosecution Manual states that “the near-absolute privilege” granted to whistleblowers “is intended to protect them from punishment by those involved in the crime and to encourage the continued sharing of information.” The Toronto Star reported in June that a Peel officer pleaded guilty to breach of trust and resigned after revealing the identity of a Crime Stoppers informant to an informant. In a statement of defense and counterclaim against the province, Peel police denied showing the video “at any material time” to the person who appears to be the Fitzpatrick person named X. If the video was disclosed to the individual, the statement added, “it was part of a police strategy reasonably employed at the time under the circumstances” and the officers could not foresee any danger to the plaintiffs. The officers and Peel Regional Police deny other central claims in the whistleblower’s lawsuit. Court staff declined CBC News’ requests for records about the whistleblower and his case. Fitzpatrick wrote that his previous decisions in the TB case were under a publication ban. Another judge’s decision on the matter was sealed, he noted in his decision.