Members of Toronto Police Service are remembering the death of one of their own many years ago.

It is 47 years this month that Constable James Lothian was shot and killed while pulling over a vehicle in the Cabbagetown area of downtown Toronto.

Lothian, who was 28, was killed on January 10 in 1973 by one of the occupants in the car that he was stopping.

He was in the area when he spotted a speeding vehicle that ran a red light, according to police records.

The officer “pursued it until the car ran into the rear of another vehicle on Amelia St., near Rawlings Ave.,” close to Riverdale Farm, records show.

“After leaving his cruiser, Constable Lothian was shot and wounded by one of the occupants of the vehicle,” police said.

The shooter was identified as Brian (Duke) Holmes, who was described as a “drug addict.”

Lothian later died in hospital leaving behind his wife Norma and their son, who would be approaching 50-years-old.

It wasn’t until some hours later that police surrounded a rooming house where they tried to negotiate the surrender of the suspects.

“I had no idea at the time why all of this was happening,” area resident Doug Fisher recalled. “ I did know that I had heard shots and that there were dead people.”

It is reported that Holmes had attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head but was unsuccessful.

Reports state that another occupant in the car, identified as Walter McVicar, shot him an additional two times before he died.

McVicar then turned the gun on himself. A third occupant of the vehicle involved in the original pursuit, a 17 year old girl, was charged with murder but was later found not guilty.

Lothian is among the officers listed in the Toronto Police Service Honour Roll. RIP Officer Lothian.

More than 266 police officers have died in the line of duty in Ontario and are honoured yearly at the Ontario Police Memorial Foundation’s Ceremony of Remembrance.

Unrelenting Toronto Police Service Dogs are being praised as heroes for nightly helping to make arrests or save lives on the frontline.

Police Service Dogs Taurus and Luke are being hailed as crime-fighting heroes for their actions in the line of duty working in this country’s largest police force.

Const. PC Papadopoulos said he teamed up with Police Service Dog (PSD) Taurus and his handler Const. Russ Keveza on January 14 to search for a driver who fled from a vehicle during a traffic stop.

Handler Keveza and Taurus (small photo) scoured the area and soon found the suspect hiding not too far away.

“Driver was located hiding thanks to PSD Taurus,” PC Pappy tweeted. “Driver is now in custody facing several criminal and traffic charges.”

That same night Sgt Mike Palermo and PSD Luke were called to help officers in 12 Division find another driver who bolted from a car in a police stop.

The crime-fighting canine and handler worked hard back and forth in the area to find a driver who fled from a stolen car in the Black Creek and Lawrence Ave. W. area.

“After a lengthy track, Luke sniffed out the fugitive who immediately surrendered,” Palermo tweeted. “Luke sniffed out the fugitive who immediately surrendered.”

Palermo and Luke received and passed police canine unit training and had been working together since September last year.

The Toronto Police Dog Services was formed in 1989 and consists of 21 handlers and dogs. Most teams are comprised of one handler and one general purpose police dog. There are teams for detecting narcotic, guns and explosives.

Every handler is responsible for the care and maintenance of his canine partner. The dog not only works with the officer but becomes part of the officer’s family.

The Service uses German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois for general purpose police dogs and a Labrador, Springer Spaniel, and Malinois breeds for the detection of narcotics, firearms, ammunition, and explosives.

All are purchased after testing and are usually between the ages of one to two years.

An unforgiving traffic speed camera on the outskirts of Etobicoke is gaining notoriety as a top money earner for the City of Toronto.

The busy Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) camera pointed towards a nice stretch of road at Renforth Dr., near Lafferty St., in Etobicoke Centre, Ward 2, has issued 890 tickets against lead-footed motorists in a four-month period.

This ASE, as the system is called, includes 50 cameras that from its installation in July 2020 to October 2020, issued more than 54,000 tickets, which are mailed to the registered owner of the vehicles.

The Renforth Dr. traffic cam issued almost 900 tickets during that period, or about 12 per cent of the tickets mailed out.

The camera was also connected to the single biggest fine issued: $718 to a vehicle owner driving 89 km/h in a 40 km/h zone.

City officials said the most frequent repeat offender was a driver in Scarborough North, who received 17 tickets from a device located near Crow Trail and Bradstone Square.

They noted as the initial enforcement window continued, there was a notable reduction in both the overall number of tickets issued and also the number of repeat offenders.

The cameras were moved to other locations last November.

Mayor John Tory said one car was ticketed 12 times in a month.

From October 7 to 31, the last day before the cameras were moved, there were 5,174 tickets issued, with 251 repeat offenders.

The cameras were installed as a key part of the City’s Vision Zero plan to eliminate traffic-related fatalities.

For the first 90 days, motorists caught speeding received warning letters instead of tickets as part of a public education campaign.

Area residents say they are aware of the cash-collecting camera in their area and always slow down when leaving their homes.

 

 

 

 

 

Some New Toronto residents are trying to save the iconic Campbell Soup 200-foot smokestack from being demolished in March.

The destruction of historic smokestacks, some more than 100-years-old, which represents part of our industrial past, have always been a popular pastime for area residents to witness.

The last smokestack that was taken down was in 1990 when the massive stack at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Plant came crashing to the ground after more than 70 years of service.  The plant was constructed in 1917.

At one time, the U.S.-based company was manufacturing 50 per cent of all the auto tires in Canada and it was a leader in the tire industry for more than 60-years.

It was no wonder that Goodyear ex-workers and fans from across the city turned out more than 31-years-ago this month to witness history when that smokestack was brought to the ground with explosives.

Another major removal was in 2006 with the explosion of the four stacks, dubbed the Four Sisters, at the Lakeview Generating Station, in Port Credit, which was built in 1958.

The impressive four stacks were each 500 feet, or 150 metres tall and could be seen on the lakefront for miles.

Then Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion joined dozens of city residents at McMillan Headland Park to watch as the historic smokestacks fell to the ground like thunder.

Now that workers have begun flattening the former Campbell Soup site, at 60 Birmingham Ave., residents are talking about the giant smokestack.

Some residents would like to keep the stack and have written letters to the developer without success. Other residents say they are concerned by the noisy truck traffic that the warehouses will bring.

Some have taken to social media to make plans to try and save the smokestack as others try to find a good spot to capture images of the crash.

Officials of QuadReal Development, the developers of the site, confirmed that the stack will be demolished in March.

Campbell’s Soup has hired generations of families and purchased crops from many in the area.

The stack has stood over the sprawling 18.8-acre site since the plant was opened in November 1931.

Some long-time residents are concerned that it is the last-surviving major smokestack in the area and brings and end of the industrial era in New Toronto, during a time with powerhouses as Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Anaconda Steel and other multi-national companies.

It was a bittersweet moment for many who on the one hand were happy to see an end to what was considered the most significant single source of pollution for the GTA, but on the other hand were saying goodbye to a piece of the city’s history and landmarks.

Police are concerned this night time prowler may become more brazen.

Officers have stepped up a search to locate a suspect in connection with an ongoing prowl by night investigation.

Police have released a photo of the suspect obtained from a security camera.

In May of 2020, police say investigators began looking into a number of incidents reported in the area of Weston Road and Church Street.

Investigators said that between March and May, an unknown man had been “acting suspicious” in residential areas on several occasions between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Police in a release said they had worked to identify the man and have now taken the step of releasing an image of the suspect in an effort to identify him.

He is described by police as standing five-foot-seven, with a slim build and a dark beard. He was last seen wearing a black winter jacket, black pants, black puma shoes with white soles, according to police.

Anyone with information relating to the investigation is asked to contact police at 416-808-2200 or Crime Stoppers.

 

 

 

 

 

Toronto Police officers and the family of Sargeant Ryan Russell said prayers and paid their respects to the slain officer on Tuesday to mark the 10^th anniversary of his death.

A small ceremony was held on January 12 inside 52 Division where Russell worked when he was killed while officers from the force’s Mounted Unit paid their respects outdoors.

Chief Jim Ramer spoke, as did Pastor Wendell Gibbs and Supt. Hugh Ferguson, who was Russell’s boss at the time. Ferguson read part of the eulogy he delivered at Russell’s funeral.

Russell, who would have been 35, was killed on duty on January 12, 2011; never saw his toddler son, Nolan, grow up to attend schools and become a fine teenager.

“I wish I could turn back time,” Russell’s wife, Christine, told guests. “I wish I could get back the life that I had.”

She is raising Nolan, 12, outside Toronto because the city holds too many memories from that tragic time.

Russell was killed while attempting to stop the driver of a stolen snow plow when he was struck on Avenue Rd., north of Davenport Rd. The six-month sergeant later succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

“He was out doing his job in the early-morning hours in a very dangerous situation, and put his life on the line, and tragically has lost his life doing his job,” Chief Bill Blair said the day of the tragic death.  “It was a day the city will never forget.”

More than 10,000 people crowded into the Metro Convention Centre for his funeral and there was not a dry eye when his widow walked in, holding tight to the hand of their two-year-old.

Found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder by a jury in 2013, Richard Kachkar, now 54, was granted an absolute discharge this past summer by the Ontario Review Board.

“He is fully and completely a free man. That’s it,” Russell reflects. “It’s a major disappointment.”

Two weeks after Kachkar’s absolute discharge, Russell received more bad news: the police horse named in honour of her slain husband had died suddenly in his stall from eating a poisonous plant. “It was a crazy July,” she says.

Christine calls the 10th anniversary of her late husband’s tragic death bittersweet and cannot believe a decade has passed. “I don’t think anybody can. Where did the time go?

She said every day since her husband was killed has been difficult, but she’s tried to shield Nolan by not talking about how his father died.

We all hate those Canada Revenue Agency scam phone calls that arrive just as we are having dinner.

The RCMP due to public pressure have been cracking down on the phone-calling culprits and have arrested a number of Brampton residents.

The most recent man arrested will appear in Brampton Court on January 18 to face charges of fraud over $5,000, possession of proceeds of crime and laundering the proceeds of crime.

Another man was charged last month with similar offences.

The RCMP allege the recent suspect was charged in connection with “transnational telephone frauds, including the CRA telephone scam, the bank investigator scam and the Tech Support scam.”

Staff-Sgt Ken Derakshan, of the Greater Toronto Area Financial Crime Section, said the arrests stem from a 2018 investigation called Project Octavia.

“These telephone fraudsters, operating from overseas, have been targeting the Canadian public since 2014,” the Mounties said in a release. “These fraudsters continue to modify their deceitful pitch to target Canadians.”

Derakshan said 10 people have been charged in a number of police raids on illegal call centres in India, which led to arrests in Canada.

“Whether masterminds of the scheme or mules facilitating the money laundering, the RCMP will investigate and bring to justice those who extend the criminal tentacles of their fraudulent operations into Canada,” he warned. “Fraud and money laundering cause devastating financial and psychological consequences to their victims.”

The RCMP said between 2014 and 2020, the CRA scam resulted in reported victim losses totaling more than $18.5 million. As of October 2020, the CRA, the bank investigator and Tech support scams have led to victim losses of more than $34 million.

Police said investigators uncovered “money mules or money mule managers,” who helped launder proceeds of crime within Canada and overseas.

The Mounties have charged Abhinav Bector, 25, and Thomas Pao,25, in connection with the scheme. Bector will appear Brampton court next Monday.

Two other men were charged last November and are believed to be in Nepal, police said.

Police warn that If someone on the phone is asking for your personal or banking information, hang up and report the activity to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. If the caller is threatening you or your family, hang up and contact your local police.

If you receive an e-mail or text message making suspicious tax claims and urging you to click on a link to submit information, don’t interact and report the occurrence to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, through its website at www.antifraudcentre.ca, or by telephone at 1-888-495-8501.

 

It took more than six months, but Toronto Police have arrested two Mississauga thugs who are accused of the gunpoint robbery of a store in the Alderwood area.

The two were arrested by members of the Hold Up Squad on January 6 in connection with the May 2020 heist of a store in the Brown’s Line and Horner Ave. area, police said.

The store was not identified by police.

Detectives said in a release that the suspects last May 25 entered the story and approached the counter.

“One man produced a handgun and went behind the counter and demanded cash,” officers said.

The victim opened the register and cash was taken as the second man took merchandise, police said.

Both men then fled the store.

The quick-footed duo were arrested and charges laid after police executed a search warrant on December 31 to view a property in Mississauga.

David Boutilier, 37, is charged with robbery with a firearm, wear disguise and possession of property obtained by crime.

James O’Leary, 41, is charged with robbery with a firearm, disguise with intent, possession of property under $5,000, fail to comply with a release order and fail to comply with probation.

The men appeared in Toronto West Court on January 7.

Police said anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7350, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com, online on our Facebook Leave a Tip page, or text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637). Download the free Crime Stoppers Mobile App on iTunes or Google Play.