The ineffectiveness of the accountability bodies is illustrated in the case of Sgt. Stuart Blower of the Toronto Police Service (TPS).

One day in 2004, when Blower was a uniformed constable, he and two colleagues were patrolling a high-crime area of Toronto. Blower spotted two young people chatting with each other and claimed he saw one of them drop a joint on the ground. The officers approached the youths, searched them, and discovered pot and ecstasy pills — and charged them with possession.

But when the case went to trial the following year, Blower’s story fell apart. Police are not allowed to stop and search people without cause. It became apparent to the judge that Blower and his colleagues had “concocted” the story of seeing one of the youths throw away a joint. The judge dismissed the case, noting, “At the point the police approached the youths there were no grounds to detain them. The detentions were arbitrary and unlawful.”

In 2009, Blower and another officer charged four men with assaulting them. The two officers had gone to an apartment building to meet with two victims of a break and entry. They were in plain clothes and driving an unmarked vehicle. The officers parked in a spot that belonged to a resident, Deen Khan. When Khan saw them do this, he told the officers to move their vehicle. The officers ignored his request, informing Khan they were police.

When Blower and his partner returned to their car, they discovered Khan’s vehicle was blocking it. The two officers went to Khan’s apartment, where he was living with his family. A fight broke out after the Khan family said Blower and his colleague threatened to “smack” Khan’s brother and father. The Khans said they didn’t know who the officers were because they didn’t produce police ID, and claimed the constables tried to violently enter the apartment. In the melee, Blower was hit on the head with a dumbbell, making a gash that required stitches. The Khans were arrested and, according to a later court judgment, suffered numerous injuries at the hands of police.

When the assault case went to trial, the judge acquitted the Khans after he found Blower was an unreliable witness with a long list of issues, changing his story in the face of evidence that undermined his initial testimony, of contradicting other evidence, and of losing his cool. “I am satisfied that [Blower and his partner] were not acting as they were required or authorized to in the administration and enforcement of the law at the time of the use of force… Their entire interaction with the Khans involved a course of unlawful behaviour, which culminated in the use of excessive force against [two of the Khans].”

Mark Pugash, director of corporate communications for the TPS, dismisses the two judges’ findings about Blower’s testimony, saying the “only way there can be a finding that someone has not told the truth is when someone is charged with perjury, evidence is led, the accused had a chance to confront his accusers and the court reaches a decision. The comments that you are quoting are throwaway comments that a judge makes in court that have no legal significance.” Pugash says that when judges question the veracity of officers’ testimony, the officers are investigated by the TPS — but he cannot reveal if this happened in Blower’s case as it would be in violation of the Police Services Act.

Then, in 2010, Blower and his partner were driving in Toronto when they spotted a vehicle with an expired tag driven by an 18-year-old black man, Junior Manon, who was on probation, meaning he wasn’t allowed to drive a car. They pulled Manon over, at which point he bolted. Blower and his partner gave chase and caught Manon, and while subduing him, one or both placed their weight on his back at varying times. After he was subdued, Manon’s body went limp. By the time an ambulance arrived, Manon had no vital signs. The SIU cleared the officers of wrongdoing, saying that due to Manon’s resistance to arrest, “the force used to arrest him was not excessive in these circumstances. His demise by means of positional asphyxia following exertion and struggle was tragic, but the subject officers cannot be held criminally liable for this unintended consequence of what was probably a lawful apprehension.”

However, Asha James, a lawyer who represented the Manon family during the 2012 inquest into Manon’s death, says police officers are trained not to place undue weight on people they’re arresting. During the inquest into the death, Blower and his partner insisted they’d followed proper procedure and not placed too much weight on the teenager's back when he was flat on his stomach because it was “hammered home” in their training not to do so. However, eyewitnesses advised the SIU, and testified at the inquest, that Manon had been “positioned in the prone [stomach-down] position with the weight of the two police officers applied to his back for a period of time.” These eyewitness statements were provided to the pathologist as part of the investigation.

At the inquest, Manon’s family argued that his death was a homicide, because the police officers should have known that placing weight on his back while he was face down could lead to him suffocating. In the end, the jury ruled the death was an accident, but did say Manon died due to “restraint asphyxia” — meaning it was because of the officers' actions.

“I think based on the [inquest] jury’s finding and information that came out … the version of events put forward by Blower and his partner was not accurate,” said James, meaning the jury disputed that Blower and his partner had not been responsible for Manon’s death. James says the jury clearly felt there was not enough evidence to rule it a homicide, however.

Blower was promoted to sergeant less than a year after Manon’s passing, and is currently an instructor at the Toronto Police College. Manon’s family has since launched a civil suit against Blower, his partner, and the police department.

Pugash emphasizes that “in the Junior Manon case, the SIU investigated and cleared [Blower]” and therefore there was no reason for Blower not to be promoted afterwards. BuzzFeed News tried to contact Blower at his workplace by phone and email for comment, but did not hear back from him.