Umar Zameer's lawyer calls for public inquiry after Doug Ford, police cast doubt on acquittal

Umar Zameer's attorney speaks after OPP cover clears 3 officers of misconduct

attorney for a adult male acquitted in a high-profile Toronto murder trial where a police officer was killed is calling for a public inquiry into the “secretive process” behind a recent Ontario Provincial Police report that re-examines evidence from the trial.

Umar Zameer's lawyer Nader Hasan said at a news conference Thursday that the OPP and Toronto Police Service must publicly release the "purported" accident reconstruction report to restore faith in the police agencies.

"We anticipated nothing good, but what we got was far worse, " he said. "These types of reviews invariably range from the inadequate to outright whitewashing."

He said he wants to "set the record straight" in a "chilling moment in the Canadian justice system."

Police services investigating one other “creates an intolerable institutional conflict of interest," Hasan said.

The long-awaited OPP report released on Tuesday found Toronto Police Service officers involved in the investigation into the 2021 death of Det. Const. Jeffrey Northrup did not lie. It also raised “significant concerns” with the collision theories posed by two separate expert witnesses in Umar Zameer’s trial, including a Toronto police officer.

The OPP’s reconstruction of the scene — using evidence “the TPS reconstructionist and defense engineer did not identify or note” — concluded that Northrup was standing in front of Umar Zameer’s vehicle when it “plowed him along the ground,” said the report. 

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

Umar Zameer's lawyer Nader Hasan says testimony probe should have used civil review, not OPP

Hasan said the Toronto police tried to "railroad an innocent man" and that Demkiw "had the audacity" to question the trial's verdict.

The OPP’s work also amounts to “utter incompetence or something far worse” and the only way to restore public faith in the police agencies is through an independent inquiry, he said.

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” he said, adding evidence was “heavily scrutinized” throughout the trial process and that prosecutors chose not to appeal the acquittal.

"This is not a fresh investigation. It's advocacy on the part of the police dressed up as a fresh investigation."

Zameer, who was charged with first-degree murder, pleaded not guilty and testified he didn't know Northrup and his partner — who were in plainclothes during the incident — were police officers. He was acquitted in 2024.

Demkiw is expected to respond to reporter questions at an unrelated event Thursday afternoon. This story will be updated to reflect those responses.

The OPP report did not reveal any "new evidence" and the theory presented is a "shameful embarrassment," said Hasan.

"The so-called new accident reconstruction theory put forward by the OPP ... Is the exact same theory the Crown put forward at trial and the jury rejected," he said.

"If the OPP reconstruction uncovered new evidence, than why haven't they shared it?"

He said it was "rather curious" that OPP were not taking questions on the report they produced.

Witness officers alleged Northrup had his hands up in a laneway, but that was found to be “a lie” by the trial's judge and jury, he said. 

Experts at the time would have identified evidence if that had happened, Hasan said.

"Anyone with an ounce of common sense would agree, if a car smacks head on into a six foot four, 300 pound individual, there would be physical evidence on the car,” he said. 

Allegations of collusion between the officers “were based on more than simply being together" during the incident, he said.

Hasan said the officers provided the "same, demonstrably false testimony" about Northrup being in front of the car.

OPP report clears 3 officers of lying accusations: police chief

The judge in Zameer's trial was called on to apologize to the witness officers, who she accused of possible collusion, by Premier Doug Ford Wednesday and Toronto Police Association president Clayton Campbell Tuesday.

"It is absolutely Trumpian," said Hasan, adding the only apology that's owed is one from Ford and Demkiw for "trying to undermine the administration of justice and the sanctity of criminal trials."

Hasan added Zameer has not sued, “yet.” Doing so would keep the story in the public eye longer and won’t give Zameer or Northrup’s family the closure to move on, said Hasan.

He said Zameer was not consulted at any point in the OPP investigation.

Police chief, widow of Toronto officer express disappointment in Zameer verdict

The Toronto police board should call for an independent inquiry to look into the report, trial and evidence in order to "respond to the lack of trust in the process that we’ve seen play out," said Shakir Rahim, lawyer and director of the criminal justice program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

He said the OPP’s report itself claims the judge’s decision was made based on the evidence presented in the trial, and that the judge did not have access to any new evidence used by more recent investigators. 

“It is very unclear why there should be any obligation on a judge to apologize," he said. "It makes that kind of intervention by the premier wholly inappropriate."

Rahim said the premier also criticized the decision to grant bail to Zamir in 2021 and, after the trial, Demkiw “suggested that a different outcome was hoped for.”

Police "intentionally" chose a "flawed and biased process," instead of going down a public and independent path to review the trials findings, said Criminal Lawyers' Association president Adam Weisberg in an emailed statement Thursday.

The OPP report, he said, "was a repackaging of the evidence already heard by an impartial jury."

"Police investigators appointed themselves judge and jury and retried the case by accepting novel theories never tested at trial," said Weisberg, adding judges "cannot and should not" apologize for a decision.

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