Ontario’s solicitor general says he will review policing laws to see if changes need to be made after the Toronto police chief highlighted that he can only suspend officers charged abroad with pay.
Toronto police have said that three officers were charged in Barcelona while on vacation and media outlets in Spain say the three men were arrested in an alleged sexual assault and assault of a sex worker, though Toronto police did not confirm those details.
Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw told CBC that Ontario law does not allow him to suspend those officers without pay because the alleged offences did not take place in Canada.
He says he will be taking up the issue with Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, who said today at the legislature that if further updates to the law are required, he will consider doing so.
The Community Safety and Policing Act took effect two years ago, updating the decades-old Police Services Act, and adding the ability for police chiefs to suspend officers without pay, in limited circumstances.
The new law says officers can be suspended without pay if they are convicted of an offence and sentenced to imprisonment, if they are in custody or under other legal conditions that interfere with their policing duties, or if they are charged with a serious offence under Canadian law.