TAMARA UGOLINI (guest host for Ezra Levant) ｜ Weak leadership and retaliation： the deepening crisis within the Toronto Police Service
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Summary
With trust in institutions, government, and policing at an all-time low, we need to look no further than what s happening within the Toronto Police Service to see that something is deeply amiss. What role does weak leadership play in police corruption allegations sweeping Canada s largest police service, leaving public safety and operational concerns awry?
Transcript
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What role does weak leadership play in police corruption allegations sweeping Canada's
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largest police service, leaving public safety and operational concerns awry?
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Tonight, Tuesday, February 17th, and I'm Tamera Ugolini, guest hosting for Ezra on The Ezra Levant Show.
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With trust in institutions, government, policing, and authority at an all-time low, we need
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to look no further than what's happening within the Toronto Police Service, Canada's
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largest police force to see that something is deeply amiss.
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Let me begin by acknowledging that corruption is as old as power itself.
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The allegations unfolding in Toronto are damning, though hardly surprising, especially when
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viewed in the broader context of what is happening, both in public view and behind closed doors.
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Yes, we see the chaos, the violence, and the crime playing out on the streets.
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Weaponized, whistleblowing, weak leadership, a service that prioritizes platitudes over public
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safety and internal disciplinary processes leveraged to preserve the status quo.
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And when trust in institutions is already fragile, the consequences of failure inside organizations
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like the Toronto Police Service are only amplified.
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Because the erosion of trust doesn't begin on the street necessarily.
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And I think that the case of Staff Sergeant Ernest, better known as Dave Haynes, who happens
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to be Ontario Premier Doug Ford's son-in-law, exemplifies just that.
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After a return to frontline policing following unpaid leave during the COVID-19 vaccine mandate,
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Sergeant Haynes was subjected to a position transfer as what he refers to a form of punishment
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for bringing concerns forward to his superiors.
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During his abusive process motion hearing last Friday, February 13th, he testified for roughly
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six hours, raising repeated operational and public safety concerns within the Toronto Police
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Service, including training deficiencies, staffing shortages, and supervision failures at
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It's important to note here that this division oversees the notorious Jane and Finch neighbourhood,
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well known historically for its crime, poverty, high density, and low-income housing.
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Officers are expected to respond to emergency calls, violent incidents, mental health apprehensions,
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As an operational staff sergeant, Haynes testified that he was responsible for overseeing platoons
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of officers and supervisors tasked with answering radio calls for service across a large geographic
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And sometimes this happened with only a handful of patrol cars available for hundreds of thousands
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Haynes noted how inherently challenging this division was, that it was strained upon his
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arrival, and according to his testimony, these conditions created not only internal morale
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As response times lengthened and frontline officers operated under sustained pressure, with,
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you guessed it, insufficient oversight at the supervisory level.
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For bringing concerns forward, he was met not with corrective action, but with retaliatory
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investigations, demotion, loss of pay, and disciplinary proceedings that he argues constitute
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an abusive process designed to silence him as a whistleblower.
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Now on medical leave with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, or PSD, Haynes' defense lawyer,
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Bathsheba Vandenberg, maintained throughout the motion that there is a clear and troubling pattern
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of reprisal, where legitimate operational concerns are met with escalating investigations and
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disciplinary measures, she argues, amount to an abusive process.
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She told the tribunal that the issue is not the ultimate merits of each individual charge,
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as some of those leveraged against Haynes have since been dropped, but whether the integrity
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of the proceedings themselves has been compromised by what she characterized as structurally unfair
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Now let's keep in mind that all of this is also happening against the backdrop of an absolutely
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staggering integrity probe by Ontario's policing inspectorate over murder plots, drug trafficking,
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Notably, Ontario's Inspector General of Policing is Ryan Teschner, who served as the Executive
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Director and Chief of Staff for the Toronto Police Services Board for nearly five years,
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from June 2018 to April 2023, calling into question his ability to be fully impartial in overseeing
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an investigation into the very organization he once helped manage and advise.
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There are concerns around conflicts of interest, institutional accountability, and whether structural
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loyalties could influence the scrutiny applied to senior leadership and operational practices
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It is with all of this in mind that we must examine the internal state of the Toronto Police
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Let's not forget the recently released internal review, the 2025 What We Heard report, which
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painted a damning picture of a service crippled by fear, nepotism, and dysfunction.
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Officers describe chronic shortages, low morale, and leadership that is distrusted at every
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Promotions and assignments are said to favor connections over competence, while harassment, bullying, and
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discrimination remain persistent, leaving officers demoralized and the public at risk.
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This is exactly the environment Sergeant Haynes testified about.
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The pattern that he described mirrors the findings of the internal review, a culture in which officers
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who raise legitimate operational concerns are met with bureaucracy, intimidation, or outright
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Public safety suffers when internal transparency is replaced with self-protection, and frontline officers
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are left to navigate unsafe conditions with limited support.
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As the TPS struggles to address these failures, from unsafe staffing levels to poor leadership
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accountability, incidents of real-world harm continue to emerge.
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Response times stretch dangerously long, operational resources are mismanaged, and officers like
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Where doing their jobs properly becomes a liability rather than a duty.
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The question now is whether the Toronto Police Service can repair itself, or whether institutional
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self-protection has become so entrenched that both internal trust and public confidence may
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Haynes' testimony combined with the internal report and ongoing integrity probe does little
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to inspire confidence in the service's ability to address its deep-rooted problems.
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Stay tuned because next we have an exclusive interview with Haynes' counsel, Bathsheba Vandenberg,
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on all things Toronto Police Service disciplinary proceedings, whistleblower reprisals, and the weaponization
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of tribunals to silence officers raising safety concerns.
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For Rebel News, I'm Tamara Ugolini, here in the small hamlet of Millbrook, Ontario, in the backdrop
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As an administrative and regulatory lawyer, Vandenberg has come to represent Toronto Police
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Staff Sergeant Ernest, or Dave Haynes, who happens to be the son-in-law of Ontario Premier
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Doug Ford throughout a series of disciplinary tribunal proceedings brought by the Toronto Police Service.
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Haynes was initially served with five cases comprising of 15 charges, ranging from internal
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emails to social media activity, including posts made after he says he was forcibly transferred
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as a form of de facto punishment for raising operational, officer safety, and community safety
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concerns. Since Vandenberg took over his defense last year, one full case has already been dismissed
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for lack of jurisdiction after it was found to have been served outside of the statutory
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time limit, but only after a contested motion and two-day hearing.
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Now, all of this is unfolding against a broader backdrop of corruption allegations within the
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Toronto Police Service, internal accountability concerns, and claims that disciplinary mechanisms
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like exactly what's happening to Haynes within the service are being weaponized, particularly
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against members who speak out. Following the filing of an abuse of process motion, prosecutors
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move to withdraw three additional charges, citing a desire to streamline the proceedings.
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What does this mean, and where do these proceedings go from here?
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And so in the case of Staff Sergeant Haynes, can you share with us kind of the crux of the
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allegations against him, and where the proceedings currently are?
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Right, so Staff Sergeant Haynes was served with a total of five cases comprised of 15 charges initially.
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And some of those charges have to do with Instagram posts, and others have to do with internal emails
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that he sent. A couple of the charges deal with when he forwarded some emails to his wife,
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Krista Ford. Now, since the start of the case, where I started representing Staff Sergeant Haynes last
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year in February, we've had one of the cases, case 50-2024, withdrawn for lack of jurisdiction.
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It was known that that notice of hearing hadn't been served within the six months statutory time limit,
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and yet we had to bring a motion, and we had a two-day hearing back in November of 2025,
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which resulted in a decision in January of this year that the tribunal didn't have any jurisdiction
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to hear that case. And that case was a chartered discredible conduct for having allegedly committed
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discredible conduct by forwarding emails to his wife, Krista Ford. And after that,
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we then submitted an abusive process motion, and we had actually attempted to submit an abusive
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process motion along with our motion to withdraw that particular charge. And the prosecution
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indicated that they hadn't been given sufficient notice of that intention. And so we set up some
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fresh dates to hear the abusive process motion, which is what we're going through at the moment. And in
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response, and when I say in response, it was because after I filed the factum for the abusive process
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motion along with the supporting affidavit, the prosecution wrote a letter to us stating that
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they were going to withdraw a further three charges. So one case, and the one case of case 31-2024,
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which had to do with an email that Staff Sergeant Haynes sent internally to 22 and 31 Div on December
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the 29th of 2023, and then two other charges, which has to do with a February 14, 2024 Instagram post
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that he posted just a couple days after he was forced transferred out of 2020, 22 Div rather. And so here
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we are. The reason that the prosecution gave for withdrawing those three charges is to streamline
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the process. Now, I've never heard of such a reason before for withdrawing charges. We recently saw in the
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news that a certain police officer by the name of Condo had his charges withdrawn against him. The conduct
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that he was alleged to have committed was very, very different than the conduct that Staff Sergeant
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Haynes is being alleged of having committed amounting to misconduct here. And anyways, in that case,
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the prosecution withdrew the charges for the reasons that the lack of jurisdiction that they were out of
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time. And so that is a good reason and the right reason to withdraw charges. We would have hoped that
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we wouldn't have had to have launched a motion with regards to case 50-2024, which also had an issue with
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jurisdiction for lack of meeting the timeline to serve the notice of hearing.
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So streamlining is an interesting choice of words because, well, Staff Sergeant Haynes has been
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facing these charges now for two years. And only after we brought an abuse of process motion was the
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case streamlined and then three further charges withdrawn. And I submitted in my oral submissions,
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both on Thursday and Friday, I reiterated that our position is that we believe that the withdrawal of the
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charges is an attempt to try to prevent eliciting evidence or giving any weight to evidence in our
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abuse of process motion that has to do with the very reasons why Staff Sergeant Haynes has been charged
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with all of these allegations, now facing 11 allegations, because we specifically stated that
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the reprisal conduct, which constituted of Staff Sergeant Haynes being forced transferred out of
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2022 div and of these charges themselves, originates as a result of Staff Sergeant Haynes raising
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concerns of operational safety issues, public safety issues, police officer welfare. He's been raising
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those concerns throughout 2023 since he joined 22 div. And it culminated in an email that he sent
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right before the New Year's holiday to try to make his officers feel heard, but they weren't alone.
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And that email he sent out on December 29th of 2023. And then he was charged with misconduct for
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sending an email to his police officers, raising the issues of resource limitations and public safety
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issues and police officers' safety. And that was in case 31, 2024. And that was a case that the
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prosecution withdrew. And yet that case is really front and center of why Staff Sergeant Haynes was
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subsequently charged. Because literally within the first week of January, when everyone got back from
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their Happy New Year holidays, all of these allegations were looked in, it's almost like
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looking for dirt, you know, it's like they looked for reasons to charge Staff Sergeant Haynes. And they
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drafted a bunch of notices of investigation. And then two and a half weeks later, served them onto
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Staff Sergeant Haynes. Wow. And you've raised some of the issues that he was trying to bring forward and
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make his chain of command, so to speak, aware of and highlight. And going back to that what we heard
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report, I mean, it said in there that there was a lack of accountability, that officers feared reprisal when
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they attempted to bring issues forward to their superiors to have them properly addressed. It just
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it just is not happening. And there's an internal culture of toxicity within the force. Can you
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highlight maybe one instance in particular, or some things, some of these systemic deficiencies that
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Sergeant Haynes was trying to raise, operational or otherwise?
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Yeah, well, first, I want to want to say that that what we heard report, I invite everyone to have a
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look at that. It's very, very important, very telling about what's going on in the Toronto Police
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Service. And in fact, although this report is about the Toronto Police Service, it's going on in many
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police services across the country. And in particular, since the mandates and policies of 2020 and COVID-19,
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that that that had a huge impact on on police resources, and public safety.
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And so with regards to the what's we what we heard reports, that was an Haines included that in his
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affidavit. I mean, because as he testified, yesterday, he stated, that report validated exactly what he was
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going through. And I had invited Staff Sergeant Haynes to read his December 29, 2023 email into the
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record. And that was denied. And I understand why, because it's already filed in the materials as part
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of the record. But I think it's important to share the first paragraph that Staff Sergeant Haynes
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wrote, and this is an internal email. So this, this wasn't a public facing email, it is now a matter
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of the public record of this disciplinary proceeding. So this is December 29, 2023. And Staff Sergeant
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Haynes is writing to his colleagues in 22DIV. And you got to remember, he's, he's, he's responsible for
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for these police officers here. And he's also writing to 31DIV, because he used to serve in 31DIV. And
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he's, as we heard him testify yesterday, he's, he's a very caring leader. And he wants his
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subordinates and his colleagues to know that they're heard. Because as we heard in the what we heard
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report, is, is that police officers don't feel heard. They, they're, they're raising grievances,
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serious grievances. And the grievances are not being dealt with. And in some cases,
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when police officers raise grievances, they face immediate reprisals, like automatic transfers
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out or, or, or at time, just very bullying, harassing, intimidating behavior. And we saw some
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of that intimidating behavior yesterday as well. And Thursday, while Staff Sergeant Haynes was
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trying to run his abusive process motion. So the email starts off with valued members.
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And Staff Sergeant Haynes then goes on to write, first of all, I hope this email finds you all well,
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and getting ready to say goodbye to 2023 and welcome 2024. I was having some conversations with
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some members around the station. And the general outlook is that people are excited to put this year
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behind them and are looking forward to some good things in the new year. The last year, the last
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few years, in fact, have been extremely challenging for a lot of people, but specifically for our
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frontline first responding members with extremely limited resources to begin with, and the constant
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high demand for our services. Sometimes it can seem there is no end in sight. I'm sure if we sent
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out a survey asking our officers why they signed up for this job, a popular answer would be to put
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bad guys in jail. That would be my answer. Instead, what we have seen happen over the course of the last
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few years is a move towards more of our resources being funneled into mental health emergencies,
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social issues, and persons in crisis, which by cause and effects, limits the amount of officers and
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resources we can use to front-end load our criminal investigations and perform proactive policing.
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And I think that highlights, really, the systemic issues faced by police, not just, as you mentioned,
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the Toronto Police Service, but other police services across Ontario and arguably also across Canada,
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that their resources are not being properly or adequately allocated to the crime, which has
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I would say been a direct correlation to the public disorder and the community safety concerns we see
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unfolding on our streets in real time. Now, this abuse of process motion that you argued,
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I would summarize it to say that it was that Staff Sergeant Haynes' disciplinary proceedings reflects
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structurally unfair and retaliatory process against him rather than just being these
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isolated incidents. But in light of the allegations of sweeping corruption within Toronto Police Service
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and leadership failures that have been highlighted kind of throughout those reports, would you say
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that this case suggests that there is a, that Staff Sergeant Haynes' proceedings are symptomatic
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of a deeper cultural problem within the service?
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Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Because what we see are two things. And it's a pattern. And it's a pattern
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that, quite frankly, is not conducive to public safety. And it's not conducive to our principles of
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transparency and accountability. So the twofold pattern that I see is one, with regards to the
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corruption allegations going on now in the Toronto Police Service, is that when I see that some police
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officers have been charged, what I look at is rank. And when I look at who is being charged and who is not
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being charged, I take issue with the police service falling back on the chain of command, as if it's this
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very black and white, strictly adhered to process of subordinate versus supervisor in the police force when
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it comes to pressing disciplinary charges. But when it comes to accountability, that chain of command
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ceases to exist. And I say that because when I think of chain of command, I think about the military.
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And I think about my time doing international humanitarian law, which is laws of war and
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international criminal law. I spent four years at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
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Yugoslavia, where people in the military are held to account for war crimes committed by their
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subordinates. So when I see charges or issues of corruption in the police force, I want to see the
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executives being charged. And the reason why is because if we properly apply the structure of
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command responsibility, then we need to see those in the upper chain of the chain of command
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held to account for their subordinates actions, not just the subordinates. And the reason for that is
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because of the responsibility to supervise, to train, to provide resources. And that goes to my second
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fold pattern that I've identified is that disciplinary proceedings are being used in some instances, such as
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as staff sergeant Haynes and also with detective Helen Bruce, to silence police officers that have stood up to
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say that we have resource issues, that we have public safety issues alive in our police force, and we need to do
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something about it. And instead of the police force doing something about it, taking accountability, taking
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responsibility, right? So the first thing is to recognize that they have a responsibility. And then the second
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thing is, is to take accountability and to act on the issues that are being, that are being reported
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upwardly. But instead of taking that approach, the chain of command or those higher up in the executive
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decide to issue internal chief of police complaint, and they take the badges away and off of these
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police officers, they transfer the police officer out of their positions, they demote the police officers,
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they suspend the police officers, and now you can suspend police officers without pay. They punish police
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officers for raising issues of resources. And that's to stop them from having to do anything about it. But that
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impacts our safety. The very role of a police force is to preserve life, to protect us.
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And repeatedly throughout, you know, watching these proceedings, and I appreciate that you brought up
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the story of Detective Helen Groves from the Ottawa Police Service, and what she's been faced with in
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terms of these weaponized disciplinary proceedings. And repeatedly, a pattern that also become, has become
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clear to me is that the upper echelon really is, is untouchable. And that's the message is that,
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you know, that we will, we will, and we can throw those subordinates under the bus for the lack of
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oversight, for lack of accountability kind of is definitely a repeated theme, but also the, the lack
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of inspection, right? There's inspectors are in place to inspect and ensure that the force and these
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services function as they're meant to. And given all of this context and the what we heard report and
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these, this corruption scandal unfolding within TPS, how can the service justify moving forward with this
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prolonged, really reputation destroying, disciplinary proceeding against Haynes, who did all of those
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things that we keep hearing are happening and proliferating within the service?
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We've argued that it's not in the public interest to continue these proceedings, because to continue
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these proceedings, which rests squarely on the fact that they are reprisals for having conducted
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whistleblowing, is not in the public interest. It is not in the public interest for the police
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service to be sending a message to the public that they punish their own for speaking out about resource
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issues. It is in the public interest that we are kept safe. It is in the public interest that our police
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forces have enough resources. It is in the public interest that our police officers are trained. And I like
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how you reminded us of why a police officer would be, would have the rank of an inspector to inspect,
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to make sure that the standards are being upheld, the standards of policing. And police disciplinary
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proceedings are in play to ensure that police officers are in line with the expected standards.
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And so when the police disciplinary proceedings are being used as a reprisal mechanism, that undermines
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a very reason why we have standards in the first place. It makes standards arbitrary. And that is
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dangerous. We cannot live in a world where our rules, especially in the police world, become arbitrary.
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Police officers are the boots on the ground that ensure that we have rule of law in this country.
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In your view, what would be satisfactory on part of the tribunal to carry out their responsibility
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also to scrutinize whether this internal disciplinary proceeding and these charges are actually being
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weaponized against whistleblowers? My expectation of every tribunal in Canada, not just the police
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disciplinary tribunal, but any administrative tribunal, is that they apply the rules of procedural
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fairness, that they apply principles of natural justice.
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And what I have experienced at times, and I'm not saying in this particular process per se,
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I have experienced in administrative hearings and in police disciplinary hearings, the principles of
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fairness not being fully respected. And a fair hearing, really, I've been paying a lot of attention to
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the words that I use and the meaning of words, because words create reality in my view. And I think
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sometimes we get lost in abstract ideas without rooting them in the practical reality. So a fair
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hearing isn't just a concept. It's not just terminology. A fair hearing means that an officer is heard,
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that the person accused is heard. And it takes time at times for a person to tell their story. And sometimes I
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feel that proceedings are rushed. And I appreciate that we want to be expeditious with resources. But I feel
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that we're living in a world right now where we just don't have time for anyone anymore. And that kind of
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cultural approach due to the pressures of life and quite frankly, because of the reality of lack of resources, we're
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dealing with these time crunches that are impacting the rights of accused to having a fair hearing to being heard. And
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again, principles of fairness, and procedural fairness, because there's fairness and there's procedural fairness.
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Procedural fairness is actually, it's a legal thing. There's procedural safeguards under Section 7 of our
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charter. Those start to unravel when we rush proceedings.
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As someone who has come to represent at least a few, a handful of police officers and other rank and file
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within various services across, as far as I know, Ontario at least, can you speak on the broader
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culture happening in policing? And I suppose also kind of just in closing and to wrap it up, perhaps a message
00:33:10.360
you have for the public or the upper echelon to get things back to what policing it was and should be about,
00:33:20.520
which, as you mentioned, is protecting life, public safety, community safety, and putting the bad guys in jail.
00:33:29.480
I think it's important for Canadians to ask for their police services to get back to basics.
00:33:39.540
And when we think about what that might look like with the police service is remembering our history.
00:33:45.580
Where do police services come from? And originally their structures were paramilitary.
00:33:51.180
And that's why they have a chain of command structure. But that current chain of command structure
00:33:56.980
is not working the way it is meant to work. We need more commanders or any commanders. We need some
00:34:07.320
commanders being held to account to set the example across the country that the executives are not above
00:34:16.320
the law. Enough with hanging the subordinates publicly. Enough of that. Yes, some police officers screw up.
00:34:27.280
Yes, there are some bad police officers out there. But what I've seen are wonderful police officers,
00:34:34.560
excellent police officers. And some of those excellent police officers, the ones that we need on our front
00:34:41.060
line to protect us, are being punished by the executives because they stood up to say that there are problems
00:34:50.720
in the police force. They stood up to say, we need your help. And instead of getting help, they were silenced,
00:35:03.280
This is not good for the police world. And what is not good for the police world is not good for the
00:35:13.340
public. Let's go back to basics. Let's start conversations with each other to talk about
00:35:26.020
Powerful. Well, thank you for your time and for your defense in these cases. As the Groose one moves
00:35:35.620
forward, as Haynes moves forward, we'll definitely stay in touch and do updates as it's fitting. Thanks
00:35:43.060
again. Thank you so much, Tamara. For Rebel News in Millbrook, Ontario, I'm Tamara Ugolini.