A Southwestern Ontario municipality was out $1.1 million. A Vancouver suspect was detained for days in his pyjamas. A choose noticed crimson flags.
Revealed Jan 27, 2025 • Final up to date 5 hours in the past • 15 minute learn
. .
Idea illustration by Charles Vincent/Particular to The
Article content material
An alleged fraud value a Southwestern Ontario municipality $1.1 million. A Vancouver suspect was detained for days in his nightclothes. A choose noticed crimson flags, calling out “a cavalier disregard” by police of the person’s rights.
The 72-year-old man wasn’t thought-about harmful or “on the move,” and he was nonetheless sporting his pyjamas.
Even so, cops eliminated him from his residence and caught him in a cell.
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
.
Unique articles from Ryan Pyette, Dale Carruthers, Jane Sims, Norman De Bono and others. Plus, the Midday Information Roundup publication on weekdays and the LFP Weekender publication on weekends.Limitless on-line entry to and 15 information websites with one account. ePaper, an digital reproduction of the print version to view on any system, share and touch upon.Each day puzzles, together with the New York Instances Crossword.Help native journalism.
.
Unique articles from Ryan Pyette, Dale Carruthers, Jane Sims, Norman De Bono and others. Plus, the Midday Information Roundup publication on weekdays and the LFP Weekender publication on weekends.Limitless on-line entry to and 15 information websites with one account. ePaper, an digital reproduction of the print version to view on any system, share and touch upon.Each day puzzles, together with the New York Instances Crossword.Help native journalism.
.
….
.
.
Entry articles from throughout Canada with one accountShare your ideas and be a part of the dialog within the commentsEnjoy extra articles per monthGet electronic mail updates out of your favorite authors
or
Article content material
The person remained within the cell for the subsequent day and a half, nonetheless in his pyjamas. For a type of days, the 2 officers accountable for the investigation went sightseeing.
Lastly, these two officers bought on a aircraft and took the person from Vancouver to Ontario. He was nonetheless in his pyjamas and handcuffed your complete flight.
Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (Free Press file photograph)
Two nights within the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre in London and one complicated bail listening to later, the person was launched.
And left to make his personal means again to Vancouver.
These have been only a few of the questionable selections two Strathroy-Caradoc cops made that led to a fraud case that value the municipality they serve $1.1 million being tossed out of court docket.
Engaged on shaky authorized grounds, bowing to native politics, utilizing complicated bail methods – Superior Courtroom Justice Martha Cook dinner had her decide of causes to take what she referred to as the “drastic” measure of staying, or setting apart, the costs towards the person, mainly placing them on maintain indefinitely.
“The conduct of authorities . . . demonstrates a pattern of police misconduct highly prejudicial to the integrity of the justice system,” she concluded.
Officers displayed “a cavalier disregard” for the rights of the accused and “a lack of understanding” of their duties, she dominated.
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
The case is the newest in an extended record that reveals many police in Ontario don’t obtain correct coaching and oversight, and/or just don’t care about some guidelines, says Ottawa defence lawyer Michael Spratt.
“It’s something that we have seen over and over and over again. It’s not specific to any police force or any specific jurisdiction, but it’s a systemic issue that runs across police forces,” he stated.
(File photograph)
“It baffles me that police receive mandatory training, on a yearly basis, about how to subdue, injure and kill people, but they don’t receive training about how to appropriately conduct investigations in a Charter (of Rights)-compliant manner. The inevitable result of that is that cases are thrown out of court.”
This case concerned taxpayers’ cash.
Strathroy-Caradoc police introduced charges in November 2021 towards a Vancouver man for a cybercrime concentrating on Strathroy-Caradoc, a municipality of 24,000 west of London.
“Funds were fraudulently obtained after being diverted away from a vendor’s account. Investigators tracked electronic records to identify the accused party,” a police spokesperson stated.
Police didn’t title the seller, the connection to the municipality or how a lot cash was taken.
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
Strathroy-Carodoc officers made no remark.
Strathroy officers travelled to British Columbia, the place they labored with the Vancouver police monetary crimes unit to look a Vancouver residence and arrest Yiu Solar Wong, 72, police stated on the time.
Wong was charged with fraud valued at greater than $5,000 and fraudulent concealment.
Earlier than Wong went to trial by jury, his lawyer Anil Kapoor utilized for a keep of proceedings, alleging an abuse of course of arising from a number of breaches by authorities of the Felony Code and the Constitution of Rights and Freedoms.
Kapoor serves on the board of the Canadian Civil Liberties Affiliation and is the co-author of a authorized textbook, Detention, Arrest and the Proper to Counsel.
In January and March of 2024, arguments about Kapoor’s utility have been heard in a voir dire listening to, a type of trial inside a trial held with out the jury current within the courtroom. Voir dire hearings enable for arguments on authorized issues.
Justice Cook dinner heard these authorized arguments and issued a written choice within the spring of 2024. The Crown didn’t enchantment the ruling. Nobody issued a information launch that the case had disappeared.
Wong couldn’t be reached for remark. His lawyer, Kapoor, has declined to discuss his consumer or the ruling, emailing The that his agency’s coverage is to not talk about instances within the media.
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
The choice by Justice Cook dinner speaks for itself, Kapoor says.
The 14-page choice does say quite a bit, not solely about authorized errors but additionally in regards to the alleged fraud and the investigation themselves.
The Strathroy-Caradoc municipal workplace (Derek Ruttan/The )
In January 2021, a Strathroy-Caradoc municipal worker bought an electronic mail from somebody she believed represented Omega Contractors Inc., a development firm that did work for the municipality, in response to the account within the choose’s ruling.
The e-mail stated Omega had modified banking info, provided a void cheque and requested that funds owed to the corporate be despatched to a brand new TD Canada Belief account.
Between Feb. 4 and March 26, 2021, Strathroy-Caradoc transferred barely greater than $1.1 million to the checking account, believing the cash was for Omega, in response to the main points within the choose’s ruling.
By April, the municipality and Omega realized a fraud was happening and the one that despatched the e-mail was not an Omega consultant, and the corporate filed a criticism with Strathroy-Caradoc police.
The native police investigation led to a suspect in Vancouver who owned the checking account, Wong, and who was put below surveillance by Vancouver police.
The investigation led police and the Crown to allege that Wong opened the checking account, then transferred funds to an unknown third get together by means of digital fund transfers to a number of Bitcoin pockets addresses.
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
The Crown didn’t have proof that Wong was concerned within the creation of the faux emails or that he was conscious of any fraudulent plan. As a substitute, the Crown alleged that Wong was “a money mule” who knew or should have recognized that the cash deposited into his account didn’t belong to him.
Strathroy police knew the person was aged, had no felony file, had no recognized ties to organized crime and wasn’t thought-about harmful, and {that a} search of his residence would possibly flip up nothing, Justice Cook dinner’s ruling famous.
Strathroy police “did not believe the Applicant to be ‘on the move’ and believed him to be just ‘a normal person who was living his life’ in Vancouver,” Cook dinner stated.
However lead investigator, Det. Const. Ben Wright, ready a report on Oct. 21, 2021, with a plan to get a Canada-wide arrest warrant and journey to Vancouver to hold out a search warrant and arrest the suspect.
Police had two targets, Cook dinner stated in her ruling – collect the most effective proof and present Strathroy-Caradoc that police have been “pulling out all the stops to bring those responsible for the fraud to justice.”
The choose’s ruling particulars a number of the emails Strathroy police Sgt. Jason Cartwright despatched Vancouver police in regards to the case.
“I just spoke to our Chief. Because of the optics of this investigation (It is our town that was defrauded the 1.2 mil), the Chief would like to send [Wright] out to be there for the operation,” the e-mail quoted within the ruling stated. “I know that you and I spoke about the possibility that executing the [search warrant] may be fruitless as [Wong] is likely a mule, however, our Chief would like us to carry out the task and at least attempt to gather the best evidence.”
Commercial 7
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
As soon as arrested, Wong can be launched below an endeavor – a signed settlement – to look in court docket later in Ontario, police determined.
“The reason why the Crown is not requesting that Wong be brought back to Ontario at this time is because Wong has no criminal record,” Strathroy-Caradoc police emailed their counterparts in Vancouver.
An Ontario justice of the peace signed a warrant for Wong’s arrest, authorizing the discharge of the accused as soon as he was issued the endeavor.
However that very same day, Const. Wright wrote to Vancouver police saying his division was reconsidering releasing Wong regardless of the recommendation from the Crown to take action.
“We do not believe that is correct,” Wright wrote.
Over the subsequent few days, obvious confusion arose amongst police in Strathroy-Caradoc about how the Ontario arrest warrant ought to be endorsed in court docket in B.C. and about what ought to occur to Wong after his arrest, Justice Cook dinner famous in her ruling.
What was clear was that ultimately each forces deliberate to have Wong not solely arrested, however detained for a bail listening to in B.C. to get an order holding Wong for six days.
That six-day remand would then enable Ontario police to take Wong again to the province for a bail listening to – in impact, the precise reverse of what Strathroy officers first deliberate.
Commercial 8
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
The 2 Strathroy officers, Wright and Cartwright, flew to Vancouver Nov. 17. These two officers and eight Vancouver officers in 4 automobiles and two vans arrived at Wong’s residence about 8:30 a.m. that day.
The residence listed on the search warrant is a good-looking two-storey brick home on a tree-lined boulevard of different good-looking properties on Vancouver’s east aspect, the place properties promote on common for about $2 million apiece.
Wong was arrested in a basement condominium and transferred at 8:45 a.m. – nonetheless sporting his pyjamas – to a Vancouver police station. He was allowed to talk to a lawyer an hour later and was then interviewed by Const. Wright.
Article content material
Idea illustration by Charles Vincent/Particular to The
After the interview, someday simply after midday, Wong was detained for his bail listening to. Wright and Cartwright have been achieved work for the day.
Wong didn’t see a choose till that night in Vancouver, the place the Crown requested for the six-day remand. The choose requested Vancouver Crown counsel if Ontario police supposed to arrest Wong. The Crown didn’t inform inform the choose Ontario police have been already in Vancouver and had already arrested Wong.
That grew to become a key sticking level later through the voir dire listening to.
Wong was then taken to a Vancouver detention centre. Nonetheless in his pyjamas.
Commercial 9
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
The subsequent day, Nov. 18, 2021, Strathroy cops Wright and Cartwright took a break day. They went to Gastown for lunch and visited Granville Island, the court docket ruling famous.
Gastown, with its fashionable meals and procuring scene, and Granville Island, a waterside district, are widespread tourism locations in Vancouver.
“Once the six-day remand was in hand, neither DC Wright nor Sgt. Cartwright gave a moment’s thought to taking a day and a half off while the (accused) sat in the Vancouver detention centre, in his pyjamas,” Justice Cook dinner famous.
The day after that, Nov. 19, 2021, Strathroy police picked up Wong and took a business flight to Toronto, after which to London.
Wong “was handcuffed throughout his transport. He was still in his pyjamas,” Cook dinner noticed in her ruling.
Wong and the officers arrived in London simply earlier than midnight and the accused was taken to Strathroy’s police cells in a single day.
The subsequent day, Nov. 20 and the third day since his arrest, Wong appeared in digital bail court docket in London earlier than Ontario justice of the peace Kelly Jackson.
Jackson had hassle determining what Strathroy-Caradoc police needed to be achieved with Wong. Of their bail report, Strathroy-Caradoc cops indicated they opposed Wong getting bail due to a flight threat, but additionally really helpful he be launched with suggestions.
Commercial 10
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
“Did I hear you correctly?” the justice of the peace requested. “Your service clicks off both ‘Bail Opposed’ and ‘Release?’ Is it the police’s recommendation just that Mr. Wong is – what was he, 72 years old – should be detained in jail?”
That’s frequent observe of the police division, to oppose bail however put in suggestions in case a choose disagrees, Const. Wright instructed Jackson on the listening to.
Jackson ordered a listening to about bail for Nov. 22. Wong spent two nights within the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre.
(File photograph)
On Nov. 22 – after 5 days in detention – Wong was launched with a surety pledge of $75,000 and a money deposit of $9,000.
He needed to discover his personal means again to B.C., Cook dinner famous in her ruling.
On the voir dire hearings Cook dinner presided over, Wong’s lawyer argued the police and Crown made a number of errors that added as much as an abuse of course of threatening the equity of his consumer’s trial.
The Crown conceded there have been procedural points however not sufficient to breach the Constitution rights or create an abuse of course of that warranted a keep of the proceedings.
Canada’s Constitution of Rights and Freedoms ensures the fitting to not be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned and the fitting to liberty.
The Strathroy cops have been performing in good religion once they tried to kind out learn how to get Wong to look in Ontario to reply the cost of fraud, Justice Cook dinner stated in her ruling.
Commercial 11
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
However, she concluded, the arrest and detention raised “multiple, serious concerns” about Wong’s Constitution rights.
Strathroy police didn’t take what ought to have been the apparent step of getting a correct warrant, referred to as a Feeney warrant, to enter Wong’s home, regardless of weeks of planning, Cook dinner stated.
On the scene of the arrest, not one of the 9 officers from two police departments appeared to think about the necessity for that warrant, or discover they didn’t have one, earlier than going into Wong’s residence to arrest him, Cook dinner stated.
“It remains inexplicable in the circumstances of this carefully planned arrest,” she stated.
Both Strathroy police didn’t know or care, Justice Cook dinner stated.
Nonetheless, that error wasn’t sufficient of an issue to remain the costs, she stated.
However the detention after the arrest was, Cook dinner concluded.
The primary cause includes a little bit of inside baseball for non-lawyers. The second appears extra apparent.
First, the Felony Code permits the courts to slap an prolonged interval of remand on somebody in the event that they’ve been arrested with out a warrant in one other jurisdiction.
The justice in B.C. who granted the six-day remand for Wong was not instructed by the Crown that Wong had been arrested by Ontario police, Cook dinner stated.
Commercial 12
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
If the justice in B.C. had recognized Wong had already been arrested, he wouldn’t have ordered the “extraordinary” six-day remand, Cook dinner stated.
That remand order legally pressured Wong to stay in custody and await bail listening to, Cook dinner stated.
That detention of Wong, primarily based on inadequate info given the justice in B.C., breached the accused’s Constitution rights and the unique Ontario arrest warrant, Cook dinner stated.
The second cause: The Ontario arrest warrant ordered police to “immediately” convey him again to the province to look in court docket, Cook dinner famous.
Canada’s Felony Code requires police and judges to think about releasing an accused as early as doable and placing the least onerous circumstances on that launch.
As properly, an accused needs to be taken to a justice of the peace inside 24 hours after the arrest, or, if that’s not doable, as quickly as doable.
Strathroy officers didn’t even attempt to get Wong again as quickly as doable, Cook dinner stated.
“Unfortunately, the overwhelming impression I am left with from these officers’ testimony is that it never crossed their minds to expedite (Wong’s) transport to Ontario because they had the luxury of a six-day remand order and pre-arranged flights home. The officers felt at liberty to take a day off,” Cook dinner stated.
Commercial 13
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
“The officers’ conduct reflects a cavalier disregard for (Wong’s) liberty rights and a lack of understanding of their statutory duties.”
Cook dinner additionally slammed the Strathroy-Caradoc officers’ complicated method to searching for bail earlier than a justice of the peace in Ontario.
The Strathroy-Caradoc Police Service (Derek Ruttan/The )
It “is a startling illustration of what I find to be a systemic lack of appreciation of what is required of police officers” below the Felony Code and “a complete abdication of the officers’ duty. I have little doubt such practice will continue without denunciation and intervention from the court,” Cook dinner dominated.
A keep is the “most drastic remedy a criminal court can order. It permanently halts the prosecution of an accused. The truth-seeking function of a trial is frustrated,” Cook dinner stated, quoting an earlier Supreme Courtroom of Canada choice.
But it surely was justified on this case, she dominated.
“The lack of understanding of the law of arrest and detention on the part of police . . . led directly to a flagrant and lengthy breach of the accused’s rights,” Cook dinner concluded. “Police showed a cavalier and indifferent attitude of (Wong’s) constitutional rights and of their statutory obligations under” the Felony Code.
The fraud case was refined and led to the lack of greater than $1 million to taxpayers, Cook dinner famous. And if the allegations have been true, Wong ought to have recognized in regards to the cash flowing by his account, she stated.
Commercial 14
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
However he was 72, with no file and there was no proof he orchestrated the fraud, Cook dinner stated.
So within the stability, it was higher to remain the case within the social curiosity of demanding police know, perceive and assume duty for his or her authorized obligations, Cook dinner stated.
Police ought to know, perceive and assume duty for following the foundations, however on the whole, time and time once more, they don’t, Spratt says.
“There is no training, there is no formal review, there is no sort of empirical evaluation, and there’s no expectation that police officers learn from mistakes. We see the same mistakes being repeated again and again and again for the simple reason that the police officers do not care and our politicians do not care,” he says.
Politicians ought to care, as a result of they’re supporting tax {dollars} spent on police departments which can be more and more demanding extra money, Spratt says.
“Police should provide value for those funds by not having their cases thrown out of court and not violating violating the Charter rights of citizens. It’s just shocking that politicians aren’t interested in doing that.”
The requested Strathroy-Caradoc police Chief Mark Campbell if the court docket ruling prompted opinions or adjustments in bail practices, or within the coaching of officers in detention and search warrant guidelines.
Commercial 15
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
Campbell was additionally requested if the officers confronted any disciplinary motion or have been supplied coaching and/or assessment of the legislation about warrants and detention.
“The Strathroy-Caradoc Police Service respects court decisions and will always seek to improve operational processes to align with the court’s directions,” Campbell replied in an electronic mail.
Strathroy-Caradoc police work with justice companions to make sure Constitution rights are revered, he wrote.
“The justice system also provides opportunities for legal arguments to be tested and judicial decisions to be written interpreting the law as it evolves over time,” Campbell wrote.
However he didn’t reply particular questions in regards to the case and any impression on the police service.
Sgt. Cartwright declined to remark.
Const. Wright didn’t reply to a voice message left with him on the police division.
Strathroy-Caradoc taxpayers ship about $6 million a yr to their police drive, accounting for a few quarter of all of the property tax {dollars} the municipality collects.
Whereas police service boards that oversee civic police forces aren’t concerned in day-to-day operations of police, they’re public oversight our bodies chargeable for guaranteeing “adequate and effective policing” below Ontario legislation. Their duties embody establishing police division aims, creating insurance policies for efficient administration and monitoring the efficiency of the chief.
Commercial 16
This commercial has not loaded but, however your article continues under.
Article content material
The Free Press requested Strathroy-Caradoc police board chair John Brennan, a civic councillor, whether or not the board had any discussions with the police chief in regards to the Wong case and whether or not the board had really helpful refreshing officer coaching in search warrants and detention legislation.
Brennan supplied solely a “no comment.”
John Brennan (Jonathan Juha/The )
Strathroy-Caradoc Mayor Colin Grantham, who additionally sits on the police board, was requested if there’s something he needs to say to taxpayers in regards to the case. He was additionally requested for his analysis of the job police did and his ideas in regards to the finish of a case involving greater than $1 million in taxpayers’ cash.
The mayor supplied this assertion:
“Chief Campbell and the men and women of our police service have my support and I am confident in their abilities.”
Colin Grantham (Jack Moulton/The )
Article content material
Share this text in your social community
