The Toronto police investigation into serial killer Bruce McArthur is now fair game to be included in an ongoing examination of the force’s handling of missing persons cases, according to the former judge heading the review.

Just twenty-four hours after McArthur pleaded guilty in the deaths of eight men with ties to the Gay Village, former Ontario Court of Appeal judge Gloria Epstein penned a letter Wednesday to the Toronto police board that commissioned the review, asking for greater latitude to scrutinize how police investigated McArthur specifically.

Due to considerations around McArthur’s fair trial rights, Epstein’s ongoing independent review — examining how the Toronto force investigates missing persons — had to give a wide berth to disappearances involving McArthur, unable to touch specific cases once the killer came onto police radar, for example, or examine how he came to be identified as a person of interest.

“Obviously circumstances have changed,” Mark Sandler, the lawyer for Epstein’s missing persons review, said in an interview Wednesday. “It is our view that removing the restriction would enable a more thorough and comprehensive investigation.”

The cancellation of McArthur’s criminal trial has now fast-tracked opportunities to examine how police handled the disappearances of the killer’s victims, which span a seven-year period beginning in 2010. And it has renewed calls for accountability, which some say can only come from a provincially commissioned public inquiry.

“In my view Bruce McArthur should have been caught a lot sooner,” said Douglas Elliott, a civil litigation lawyer who was among the group of LGBTQ advocates to first push for a public inquiry after McArthur’s arrest.

“A public inquiry could look at the whole big picture of how do we organize our society, our institutions in a way that we are able to detect serial killers as quickly as possible … It would be a tragedy of epic proportions if this happened again in Ontario.”

Although he fully supports Epstein’s ongoing review, Elliott — who has worked on public inquiries including the examination of the deadly Elliot Lake mall collapse — said Wednesday that there are “inherent limitations on her ability to get to the bottom of things,” even with an expanded mandate.

A public inquiry comes with powers to subpoena witnesses and documents, a larger budget, a broader scope and a higher profile, the latter increasing the likelihood recommendations would be acted upon, Elliott said.

Rather than launching an inquiry in addition to Epstein’s review, Elliott suggested that she instead be tapped to lead a public inquiry, and continue the work she’s begun with greater powers and a provincial mandate.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Mayor John Tory agreed Epstein’s review may not “be enough.”

“I think there might be a need for a broader inquiry that really delves much more deeply into everything that happened here, particularly as it affected the LGBTQ community and the victims in this case,” Tory said.

A spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General said in an email Wednesday that any considerations about a public inquiry, or other potential review mechanisms, will come at the completion of McArthur’s sentencing proceedings, scheduled to begin next week.

But Ontario premier Doug Ford didn’t close the door on a public inquiry, even after saying he wanted to “support our police rather than always attacking them.”

“Yes, could we correct things within the police? One hundred per cent we can correct things. They know it. I’ve talked to the chief about it. And they’re going to do everything they can but we won’t rule out any further investigations,” he told reporters.

Terence Kernaghan, the Ontario NDP’s LGBTQ Issues critic said measures must be taken to ensure that a murderer like McArthur “is not allowed to take lives again, particularly within marginalized groups.”

“If that takes a public inquiry then we shouldn’t hesitate to call one,” Kernaghan said in a statement to the Star.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

McArthur, 67, has admitted to killing: Andrew Kinsman, 49; Selim Esen, 44; Majeed Kayhan, 58; Soroush Mahmudi, 50; Dean Lisowick, 47; Skandaraj (Skanda) Navaratnam, 40, Abdulbasir Faizi, 42, and Kirushnakumar Kanagaratnam, 37. Many of his victims had ties to the Gay Village and were of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent.

Scheduled to be completed in early 2020, Epstein’s independent review was commissioned unanimously by the Toronto police board last year in the wake of criticism surrounding McArthur’s arrest and questions about why the serial killer had not been arrested sooner after a succession of men went missing from Toronto’s Gay Village.

In an address to the board last summer, Epstein said her review would examine whether Toronto police handling of missing persons investigations could have been “tainted by systemic bias or discrimination” and whether the policies and procedures in place “adequately protect against implicit or explicit bias or discrimination” against members of the LGBTQ community or marginalized groups.

If an amendment is granted and the scope of Epstein’s review is widened to include the McArthur probe, Epstein could likely report on a broader set of facts, including police documents that might otherwise not have been available due to the McArthur’s fair-trial rights restrictions.

In a statement, Toronto police board chair Andy Pringle said the board will consider Epstein’s request at a future meeting, and “is already in the process of considering what options are now available to more broadly examine the important issues related to missing persons investigations.”

That includes engaging with Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General “to explore whether (it) is intending to examine these matters.”

Asked outside court Tuesday if there should be a public inquiry in the case, Toronto police Det. David Dickinson, who led the McArthur investigation, referenced Epstein’s ongoing review but welcomed further examination if it’s deemed warranted.

“I think that if there were mistakes made or lessons learned, absolutely, we should learn from them,” he said.

Ferhat Cinar, brother to Selim Esen, McArthur’s seventh victim, has previously expressed the need for a public inquiry. Cinar, who listened to Tuesday’s plea from his home in London, England, has said victims’ families and the broader community are angry that the men’s disappearances weren’t “taken seriously” sooner.

“One cannot help but ask why?” Cinar said in a statement sent to the Star late last year, following a funeral for his brother in Toronto.

“Was it to do with their sexual identity of being gay? An independent public inquiry is certainly needed to get into the bottom of this and finding out who was responsible.”

With files from Rob Ferguson