As people were getting home from work and preparing for dinner last Thursday, phone screens in Toronto, Barrie, Peterborough, and other areas suddenly lit up with a loud alert.
“Emergency alert,” the message displayed on phones warned, instructing the public to stay indoors while police looked into a homicide. The suspect was described as an “Unknown male.”
The shelter-in-place order was actually meant for just one neighborhood in Pickering, Ont., local police later explained. Even though the alert included an address and mentioned Durham Region, it didn’t specify the town or neighborhood.
This emergency alert was set off due to the fatal stabbing of an 83-year-old woman in a neighborhood located in northwest Pickering. Police said this was a random attack and eventually arrested a 14-year-old boy, charging him with first-degree murder.
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The details regarding the incident weren’t included in the alert that advised people across the Greater Toronto Area and beyond to lock their doors.
“The area covered by the alert and what information gets released is determined by the OPP,” stated a spokesperson for Durham Regional Police, who requested the alert, told .
“From what I understand, the range of the alert extended further than what was initially requested since the armed suspect was on foot and there was an immediate threat to public safety.”
Crime Analyst Hank Idsinga noted that although it covered a large area, using such broad emergency alerts made sense given the situation.
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“He was on foot. How far could he get? He might have had a car parked right around the corner,” he pointed out.
“We recognized this error quickly and corrected it. We’re currently looking into why this malfunction occurred and working toward fixing it.”...
This series of events left many people seeking answers.At Queen’s Park during his latest cabinet reshuffleOntario Premier Doug Ford appointed someone full-timeas Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response.This position had been part-time previously within Treasury Board.However,Dunlop told on Monday she hadn’t yet been briefedon how things went wrong with this emergency alert.
“We haven’t discussed that or had any debriefings about this situation yet,” Dunlop commented Monday when asked if she believes stricter protocols should be implemented. “Absolutely; we’ll definitely discuss more moving forward.” Dunlop’s office indicated inquiries regarding this emergency alert should go through Solicitor General or Ontario Provincial Police. As for Solicitor General’s office,
It stated questions related specifically concerning radius would be directed towards OPP. Meanwhile,
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles questioned why there’s now supposed full minister dedicated solely towards managing emergencies if she hadn’t even been briefed about recent incident involving emergency alerts. “I’m troubled knowing they’ve appointed someone whose job focuses entirely on these matters without having updated her yet,” Stiles remarked.
“It’s literally her entire role dealing with emergencies-how does she not know what happened here? What’s going on?”
– with files from ’s Noor Ra’fat © 2025 , a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. “This is an excellent tool that should probably be used much more often, especially during murder investigations.” The alarm itself went off nearly three hours after authorities believe the crime took place. Acting Staff Sgt. Joanne Mc Cabe explained that they triggered it as quickly as possible under reasonable circumstances. “It’s not always about minutes; it’s about whether they’re known to each other or if there’s still a threat to public safety. We also need to consider where he might have gone,” she said. Story continues below “There are investigative steps that need to happen; those happened before we communicated with OPP who then issued the alert.” The OPP mentioned that they acted quickly once Durham Regional Police made their request for an alert. “Once we received that request for an alert from Durham Regional Police, it took us less than 20 minutes to issue it,” said OPP in a statement. “During this period we must review and translate their request before issuing.” A technical error even caused some versions of these alerts on certain devices to show up as terrorism-related messages. “The issue regarding categorizing this as terrorism was indeed a technical malfunction,” noted OPP.“We recognized this error quickly and corrected it. We’re currently looking into why this malfunction occurred and working toward fixing it.”...
This series of events left many people seeking answers.At Queen’s Park during his latest cabinet reshuffleOntario Premier Doug Ford appointed someone full-timeas Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response.This position had been part-time previously within Treasury Board.However,Dunlop told on Monday she hadn’t yet been briefedon how things went wrong with this emergency alert.
“We haven’t discussed that or had any debriefings about this situation yet,” Dunlop commented Monday when asked if she believes stricter protocols should be implemented. “Absolutely; we’ll definitely discuss more moving forward.” Dunlop’s office indicated inquiries regarding this emergency alert should go through Solicitor General or Ontario Provincial Police. As for Solicitor General’s office,
It stated questions related specifically concerning radius would be directed towards OPP. Meanwhile,
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles questioned why there’s now supposed full minister dedicated solely towards managing emergencies if she hadn’t even been briefed about recent incident involving emergency alerts. “I’m troubled knowing they’ve appointed someone whose job focuses entirely on these matters without having updated her yet,” Stiles remarked.
“It’s literally her entire role dealing with emergencies-how does she not know what happened here? What’s going on?”
– with files from ’s Noor Ra’fat © 2025 , a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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