Senior Toronto police leadership have ordered that all alcohol-laced introduction rituals for new officers end immediately after such activities served as a backdrop in a recent sexual assault trial, a source tells CP24.
A memo authorized by Chief Mark Saunders circulated to all divisions on Friday ordering that “regular initiation-type rituals for new officers” that involve excessive alcohol consumption and the expectation that new hires buy drinks for more senior officers must end.
On Wednesday, Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy found the three officers, Joshua Cabero, Leslie Nyznik, and Sameer Kara, not guilty of sexually assaulting a parking enforcement officer in a harbourfront hotel room in the early morning hours of Jan. 17, 2015 after a so-called “rookie buy night.”
The judge ruled that problems with the complainant’s testimony meant she “could not be sure” what exactly occurred in the hotel room and therefore it was “simply not safe to convict” the officers.
Molloy found that the allegations were preceded by a night of drinking at two bars and a strip club as part of a “rookie buy night.”
The source tells CP24 that any supervisor who does not enforce this order or fails to confront “conduct unbecoming” of a Toronto police officer, will be held accountable.
