OPP investigation finds no wrongdoing from Toronto police officers at Umar Zameer trial

unrecorded | OPP findings released in dig into of Toronto cops' deal during bump off trial of fellow officer

An Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigation examining the conduct of multiple Toronto police officers, launched after the judge at a high-profile murder trial accused responding officers of lying and collusion, has found no evidence of wrongdoing.

The long-awaited OPP report, which was released Tuesday, states that the officers involved in the investigation into the 2021 death of Det. Const. Jeffrey Northrup in Toronto did not lie, and instead suggests that the evidence provided by two separate expert witnesses from the Crown and defence at trial — which was then accepted by a jury — was wrong.

"The OPP investigation found no evidence to support the belief that [the officers] lied or colluded to lie," the report reads. 

"The allegations made regarding the officers’ conduct, amounting to an obstruction of justice, were not found to be based on the actual testimony and evidence presented,” it says.

"The OPP has concluded this investigation with no reasonable grounds to believe that a criminal offence has been committed by the officers involved."

You can read the OPP's findings in full at the bottom of this story.

The release of the report, which was requested by Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw, comes years after Northrup was struck and killed by a vehicle in an underground parking garage at Toronto City Hall on July 1, 2021.

Umar Zameer, who was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the case, pleaded not guilty and testified he didn't know Northrup and his partner — who were in plainclothes at the time of the incident — were Toronto police officers. 

The officers were investigating a stabbing that happened earlier that night. But Zameer was not connected to that incident in any way, according to court documents, nor did he match a suspect description from the stabbing.

Zameer was later acquitted in 2024.

The trial focused on whether Zameer meant to run over Northrup, or even realized it had happened, and whether he knew the constable and his partner were police officers. 

Zameer testified he thought his family was being ambushed by criminals when two strangers ran over and started banging on his car, where he was sitting at the time with his pregnant wife and two-year-old son.

In her final instructions to the jury, Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy told jurors to consider the possibility that three officers who served as the prosecution's key witnesses had colluded.

In a written decision linked to the case, Molloy went even further. She said it was possible that two of the officers involved — constables Scharnil Pais and Antonio Correa — hadn't seen what happened that night, but decided to back up an account of the incident from Northrup's partner, Const. Lisa Forbes.

Umar Zameer’s lawyer: 'We knew the truth'

All three had the same incorrect memory that Northrup was standing in a laneway with his arms outstretched when he was struck, Molloy said during jury instructions.

She went on to write in the decision that it was possible all three officers had made up this story because they didn't see what happened and they thought their account was "logical," or that the officers had "invented" the story to put themselves in a better light.

"Perhaps we will never know what they actually saw. The one thing I know for sure, however, is that Officers Pais and Correa did not see Officer Northrup standing upright while being run down by Mr. Zameer," Molloy wrote. 

"Further, the fact that their versions dovetail so closely with each other and with Officer Forbes leads me to the inexorable conclusion that they not only lied, but they colluded to lie."

The OPP report notes that Molloy's conclusions were limited to the evidence presented at trial — but goes on to say that provincial police investigators found evidence that wasn't presented in court.

"While the defense theory that Detective Constable Northrup was struck while beside a reversing BMW was accepted at trial, the OPP collision reconstruction investigation found no evidentiary basis for this claim," the report reads. 

"Physical evidence, including security video, forensic mapping, tire marks and autopsy findings supported that Detective Constable Northrup was standing in front of the BMW when it accelerated forward and struck him down."

'I never meant any of this to happen,' Umar Zameer says after not-guilty verdict in Toronto police officer's death

The report goes on to say there is "insufficient evidence" to suggest that the arresting officers intentionally lied in their statements, notes or testimony.

"Variations in testimony were consistent with differences in perspective and standard tactical practices of police, which are unfamiliar to civilians," the report reads. 

"The trial judge’s interpretation of the officer’s testimony was inaccurate on this topic."

Toronto police said they had received the OPP's report last week and planned to brief "affected individuals" about the findings before releasing it.

Those briefings did not include Zameer or his lawyer, Nader Hasan, who said in a statement before its release that he had "serious misgivings" about the report. Neither he nor his client saw the report before it was made public, nor has anyone from the OPP contacted them about the investigation, he said.

Hasan said turning to provincial police for the investigation was "a curious choice."

"There are various ways that [Toronto police] could have triggered a truly independent public review of the egregious police misconduct at issue here, yet they chose to have their misconduct reviewed by another police agency," he said, noting the history of police forces investigating one another is "not good."

"We await the release of this report with serious misgivings," he said at the time. "Although I would love to be proven wrong, this process does not inspire confidence that this review has been undertaken in good faith."

The SIU, Scott noted, has a mandate to only investigate incidents involving police that involve death, serious injury and allegations of sexual assault.

"The problem we have here is an optics one to some degree," Scott said. "It's that, if they choose not to lay charges … there's going to be the usual complaint, which is that it's police covering up for other police officers.

"The only way to deal with that is to have a more independent unit, and we simply don't have one in this province."

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