His name was Gurvinder Singh.

The 22-year-old Toronto man was brutally assaulted with a compressed air hose on March 6 at his Mississauga workplace and died in hospital 12 days later.

Three of Singh’s colleagues, Abhijeet Singh Nagra, Dilsher Singh and Prabhjeet Singh, stand accused of manslaughter.

But the police never told the public his name. Peel Regional Police are keeping it secret at the request of his family.

“Police are not going to release the victim’s name, nor would we confirm the victim’s name should it be released by anyone,” said Const. Thomas Ruttan.

The Star was able to confirm the identity through publicly accessible court records.

The case underscores stark differences between the practices of police forces nationwide. Toronto and Vancouver, for example, always release the victim’s name; both forces say their practice is in the public interest. Peel police and Quebec’s provincial force, on the other hand, do not.

The varying approaches have pitted transparency advocates against privacy experts. The former argue the identity of a homicide victim is critical to the public’s understanding of a crime, while the latter that respect for the family’s wishes comes first.

“We believe you can’t be murdered anonymously, that the public has a right to know some of the details around a homicide,” said Vancouver police spokesman Const. Brian Montague.

“While we do the best we can to respect the family’s wishes, we try to help them understand why we would release information, because you want to be seen as transparent with your information. As a police department, you don’t want to be seen as trying to hide a homicide in your city.”

Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash said the force believes there is a “compelling public interest in the victims of what is the most serious crime that we investigate.” He said police work closely with the families, and that while some have expressed concern about disclosure, he said they ultimately agree when police explain that it’s important for the investigation.

In Quebec, the provincial police force, like Peel police, will not disclose without the family’s consent. The RCMP follows a similar practice.

“Once the victim has been formally identified by the coroner and with the consent of the family, we will release the name of the homicide victim,” said Sûreté du Québec spokeswoman Sgt. Mélanie Dumaresq. “We really have to have their consent … It’s delicate.”

While such decisions may have a homicide victim’s family in mind, transparency advocates say they open the door to problems.

“Secrecy is a recipe for abuse and lack of accountability, for both people who have committed the crime and also for the police,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch and a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa, who added that making the name public could also aid the investigation.

“Who knows what someone saw? Or experienced? Or had interactions with someone who has been killed? So by keeping (the name) secret, it keeps all these people from coming forward.”

A homicide is also a crime against society, and therefore the public has a right to know who was killed, said Ryerson University journalism professor and former lawyer Lisa Taylor.

“Justice is not meant to unfold in private,” she said. “The more the public understands, the better off we are.”

Former Ontario information and privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian said that, unless police can make the case for why releasing the name is critical to their investigation, deference should be given to the family’s wishes.

“In the privacy laws we have here, law enforcement is given wide latitude, so if it’s necessary for law enforcement to conduct their investigation, then allowances are made,” said Cavoukian, now executive director of the Privacy and Big Data Institute at Ryerson University.

“However, if the wishes of the family members involved could be respected, that’s what I would lead with … It’s a horrendous time (for the family) anyway. Why add to the distress if you don’t need the information?”

There is no specific legislation that governs police disclosure practices.

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“These are operational decisions that individual police services would make,” said Lauren Callighen, spokeswoman for Ontario Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Yasir Naqvi.

It’s “troubling” that police forces across the country are not on the same page when it comes to something as sensitive as publishing information on homicide victims, said Toronto lawyer Julian Falconer, who has represented families of people killed by police.

“This is not a particularly legally complex question,” he said, without going as far as to say whether he believes the name should always be released or not.

“This is just about comfort levels. We can’t be creating a system of what amounts to double and triple standards. There has to be a level of consistency so that people can feel respected, no matter which jurisdiction in Canada the tragedy occurs.”

Advocates pushing for the release of victims’ names point out that the name will be revealed in open court anyway, or even sooner on social media or word of mouth, which is ripe for the spread of misinformation.

Toronto lawyer Iris Fischer, who has represented the Star in the past, said it’s reasonable for police to take the necessary time to inform the family of the death and to confirm identification, but that it’s “concerning” if they never release the name.

“Stories about nameless people don’t resonate as much,” she said. “It’s difficult for readers to follow a story when there’s no name associated with the person involved.”

Joanne MacIsaac said she understands that all too well. Her 47-year-old brother, Michael, was shot and killed by Durham police in Ajax in December 2013.

According to the Special Investigations Unit, which investigates all police-related deaths, Michael was walking outside naked that day, behaving erratically and confronting people before his altercation with police. The SIU cleared the officer who shot Michael of any wrongdoing.

Due to a fairly recent SIU policy change, Michael’s name was withheld at the request of his family, and for a while he was simply known as the naked, violent Ajax man killed by the cops.

Frustrated by Michael’s portrayal and convinced the SIU was wrong, Joanne and her family went public with Michael’s story, and shared tales of a mild-mannered, loveable man who enjoyed playing with his many nieces and nephews.

Joanne said the public reaction was overwhelming. She said she now believes all homicide victims’ names should be released.

“People started paying attention and offered support,” she told the Star. “There won’t be any change unless people know what happened and who he was. I think it is absolutely in the public’s interest to know.”