Author: Paul Manning
Paul Manning has worked internationally as a law enforcement officer for over 25 years. His experience includes, but is not limited to undercover work, homicide investigations and drugs and vice. He is considered an expert on organized crime, especially traditional organized crime.
Paul Manning brings you this exclusive Exaro News story from Ontario, Canada.
At 8AM this morning, beneath a bewildering cluster of alleged dishonesty and political exploitation Supt. Ronald Taverner of the Toronto Police Service was supposed to present himself for duty at Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Headquarters taking the reins of Ontario’s largest police service, making him the ‘top cop’ in the Province.
On Friday, Taverner released the following statement, “Out of the greatest of respect for the brave men and women of The Ontario Provincial Police, I am requesting my appointment as Commissioner be postponed until as such time the Integrity Commissioner has completed his review.”
In the past weeks his selection had come under intense scrutiny not only from a number of political isles and media outlets, but finally the interim OPP Commissioner, Brad Blair who in an extraordinary move asked the Courts to order the Ontario Ombudsman to investigate Taverner’s’ appointment. An exploration Paul Dube, the Ontario Ombudsman, had declined to instigate on two prior occasions.
Blair also made allegations that Dean French, Ford’s chief of staff had directly asked for a “camper” style van to be purchased “off the books”. This contention was immediately met with calls for Frenchs’ resignation, and a response from Ford that Blairs’ accusations were nothing more than “sour grapes” on the part of the interim Commissioner.
Over the weekend the courts agreed with Blair’s assertion that Taverner’s appointment should be the focus of an independent Ontario Ombudsman review and clarity sought on how much, if any, Provincial political interference played into Taverner’s appointment.
This led the Provincial Government to remove Blair from the position of interim Commissioner, replacing him with OPP Deputy Commissioner Gary Coture. This timing of this action would appear to the layperson punitive in nature and the decision makers in this particular process may well have left themselves open to criminal jeopardy under Sec 425.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada.*
Suspicion into this appointment was further roused when the initial selection process excluded Taverner from even applying as his rank was not high enough. The prerequisites of the job were modified on October 22nd, now enabling Taverner to apply. This was apparently done to broaden the pool of applicants for the post. But it would appear in Blair’s filing the requirement changes only widened the group of applicants from 24 to 27.
Taverner’s relationship with the Ford family, including both Doug and the late Rob Ford goes back decades. Unsubstantiated rumors in the policing community have circulated for years that Taverner has been behind bailing the Ford brothers out of trouble on more than one occasion, however those same allegations have yet to be substantiated with evidence or fact.
Taverner’s’ name first came to the attention of Exaro News in a Human Right Tribunal filed in 2014 by Const. Heather McWilliams, Toronto Police Service (TPS). McWilliams’ alleges years of sexual harassment creating a ‘toxic work environment’ at 23 Division TPS, which subsequently led her off on sick leave in 2014.
The supervising officer for 23 Div. TPS at the time was Taverner, who McWilliams also alleges tried to discourage her filing internal complaints and subsequently “punished” her by holding back work place opportunities. Taverner is not named in the application, but is shown as a witness.
If there’s any truth to this action, Taverner is most definitely not a suitable choice to lead an already embattled police service. A service plagued with allegations of sexual discrimination, which is currently defending a Human Rights claim from eighty-four predominately female civilian specialist and managers claiming gender-based discrimination.
At the end of May 2018 Exaro news was contacted by an anonymous source claiming to be from the Ministry of Community and Correctional Safety. The source advised that they already knew the provincial election was lost. Adding that once elected Ford would attempt to remove the Chair on McWillams Human Rights Tribunal and would successively give Taverner the OPP Commissioners position.
In July, weeks after Ford was sworn in, Vice Chair Pickle, HRTO suddenly resigned from her position, to take up a new post with the Immigration and Refugee Board. McWilliams was given the option of discontinuing her action or starting the process from the beginning. A process which had this point had taken over two years.
While VC Pickles’ resignation could have been nothing more than coincidence, rather than foreshadowing, the fact remains Taverner was the only witness left to testify. A testimony which may have backed Ford into a corner, restricting Taverner’s future employment opportunities within the Ford government, and definitely excluding him for the Commissioners spot.
Premier Doug Ford has eminently rebuffed the notion he applied pressure on the committee to appointed Taverner or had any involvement in this procedure. However, if he, any of his cabinet ministers or any of his staff interference in the jurisdictive process for political or personal gains this would be a straightforward criminal obstruction of justice.
*(Sec 425.1 CCC makes it illegal to retaliate against any employee who has provided information to an agency whose duties include the enforcement of Federal or Provincial Law.)
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Hamilton police in Ontario, Canada today confirmed an arrest has been made in the 2017 shooting homicides of Angelo Musitano and Mila Barberi.
Hamilton Police Service Major Crime Unit. RCMP Hamilton-Niagara detachment and York Regional Police Service set up a joint task force following Musitano’s death in May 2017.
Police unearthed a connection between Musitano’s murder, the slaying of Barberi, 28, and attempted murder of her boyfriend, Saverio Serrano. Police believing Serrano was the intended target in the incident.
Hamilton police said Jabril Abdalla, 27, was arrested on Wednesday connection with the deaths of Angelo Musitano and Mila Barberi, and two others, Michael Cudmore, 37, and Daniel Tomassetti, 27, remain wanted in the case.
Being told two of them just got clipped by the cartels whilst hiding in Mexico
— Paul Manning (@mobinfiltrator) April 7, 2018
They each face two counts of first-degree murder, a single count of attempted murder, and three counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
Police say they believe others were involved.
The arrest was made as a result of a months-long investigation dubbed Project Scopa, involving several police forces.
It’s believed that Mila Barberi was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was gunned down by accident, according to police.
At around 4 p.m. on March 14, in a Woodbridge parking lot, she was meeting a man when the gunman opened fire on the car both were in.
Initially, Barberi’s murder was viewed as being linked to a string of nine gangland hits in Vaughan from 2013 to 2015. Days after Barberi’s murder, York Regional Police reported they had recovered the vehicle used in the murder in an industrial park near Rexdale.
It was a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was found on March 16 based on a phone tip.
While Police continue to search for Michael Cudmore and Daniel Tomassetti some sources believe they were killed in Mexico several months ago.
Paul Manning brings you this exclusive Exaro News story from Ontario, Canada.
On August 30th, 2005 Jane Lutner received a visit from Halton Regional Police that every family member dreads receiving and every police officer fears delivering.
Her father Eddie Lutner, who had been missing since August 25th, 2005 had been found, his body was recovered from a Spencer Park shoreline in Burlington in an apparent suicide. A subsequent investigation by Halton Police found his fatality as ‘non-suspicious’, the Coroner’s Office ruling his cause of death ‘undetermined.’
Eddie Lutner, a man in his senior years was a retired TD Commercial Bank Manager who had spent 33 years in the profession. He worked for a short time teaching business at the University of Toronto. He was a passionate soccer fan, loved golfing and an unashamed womanizer, a characteristic which ultimately led to three divorces.
On August 25th, 2005 Paton Weir a 66 year old retired Toronto Police Sergeant went missing along with his boat from the docks at Port Credit. His 6 meter fishing boat swept ashore on the facing side of the lake from where it had set sail. On September 3rd Weir’s body was recovered by Peel Police officers 2 kilometers from the marina.
Though tragic and horrifying for the families involved, there’s nothing unusual about corpses washing up on the beaches of Ontario’s 250,000 lakes and over 100,000 kilometers of river ways. On average almost 500 people die annually in Ontario’s waterways, in 2005 the official reported total including Lutner and Weir was 490 drowning deaths.
The perplexing quandary with these two seemingly separate and ill-fated circumstances is Lutner and Weir had a prior association. Not only had they had known each other for years and were good friends, it would appear Lutner at least had tried to launder over $250,000 through a Canadian held financial services company.
At the beginning of September 2005 Jane collected her father’s car and possessions from Halton Police Detectives, the first thing she observed was “the smell of death” emanating from the trunk. She also found items that clearly belonged to a female and not her father but also an ‘Investment Group’ (IG) card. Oddly enough, when she informed Halton Detectives of what she had found in the car, they immediately attended her residence and collected the ‘IG’ card leaving all the other articles for her to dispose of.
While Halton Detectives visited Jane she inquired if they had considered if Weir and her father were connected, Weir’s body having just been discovered days prior. Jane says “His response was weird. He told me ‘No’ and that they initially suspected that Weir was trying to ‘Stage his own disappearance.’
A couple of weeks after his death, Lutner’s cell phone rang and Jane answered. The caller identified himself as “Tyler Atkinson”, a Senior Investment officer with ‘IG’. Jane says, “He told me my father was supposed to have contacted him September 1st about a ‘sizeable investment’ he had left with him.
Jane says “He also admitted that dad did not provide the required documents to support the source of the money but had promised he would. He met dad at a trade fair, but my dad’s diary has entries regarding Tyler going back to 2002.” When Jane asked Atkinson to clarify what “sizeable” meant he told her “over $250,000”.
Exaro News spoke directly with the Investors Group agent and he adamantly denied knowing both Lutner and Weir, talking to Jane or taking and investing money from Lutner. We obtained his number directly from Lutner’s’ address book which was also littered with scheduled appointments between Atkinson and Lutner.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”15″]Over 13 years after her father’s untimely death, on August 30th, 2018 Jane was again visited by uniformed Police Officers.[/perfectpullquote]
Over 13 years after her father’s untimely death, on August 30th, 2018 Jane was again visited by uniformed Police Officers. This time they told her to expect a call from a Detective. When DC Blair Bolton, Halton Regional Police called her Jane was shocked to hear not only had the Ontario Coroner’s office directed the police to reopen and review the investigation into her father’s death, but DC Bolton was also liaising with Peel Regional Police and the possible link between her father and Weir.
Startlingly, he further confirmed Halton Regional Police had somehow drawn links between the Jane Doe found in Rockwood, Ontario also in August 2005 and this investigation. Jane thinks it was somehow tied into a female DUI that was arrested at the same time. “They gave me the wrong release paperwork when I collected my father’s car. It was for a Ford Escort belonging to a female arrest for a DUI. The officer who called me asked repeatedly about this release form.”
The Ontario Coroner’s Office confirmed the same stating that “Information was recently relayed to our office concerning two deaths that occurred in 2005. As a result, we conducted case reviews and relayed the information given to us with the police services of the jurisdiction for their review and consideration.”
They refused to confirm Halton Regional Police assertion these deaths may be somehow linked to the ‘Rockwood Jane Doe’, the as yet unidentified female found under a sleeping bag in woodlands, by a rest stop just outside of Guelph, Ontario.
The Halton regional Police media relations officer stated by email this request by the Coroner’s Office has not “materialized into an investigation at this time.”
In 2006 Jane sent a letter to the RCMP conveying concern over the “oddities and inconsistencies” tied to her father and Weir’s fatalities. She sent a subsequent correspondence when she received no response to the first which provoked a phone call from the RCMP asking her to stop writing. Days later, Jane would subsequently receive an anonymous letter on the windscreen of her car telling her to ‘watch herself.’
Now this investigation is back in the hands of Halton Regional Police and Peel Regional Police, Jane expects them to “Investigate, not cover up what could be a multiple homicide. Hopefully the truth of the matter will be exposed.”
*Exaro News also contacted Peel Regional Police Services and Investors Group for comment and at the time of publication have yet to receive a response.
No part of this story may be reproduced without the express written consent of Exaro News. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited.
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