An OPP investigation finds the TPS officers accused of lying in the trial of Umar Zameer innocent
A bombshell report denies a judge’s allegation that three officers colluded to lie under oath
An Ontario Provincial Police investigation found no evidence that three Toronto Police Service detective constables lied during their testimony in the first-degree murder trial of Umar Zameer.
In July of 2021, Zameer was downtown with his pregnant wife and two-year-old son for Canada Day festivities. When the family returned to their car, in the underground parking garage at Nathan Phillips Square, they were approached by four plainclothes TPS officers who, according to Zameer, failed to identify themselves. Panicked, Zameer drove into and killed one of the officers, 55-year-old Constable Jeffrey Northrup.
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Zameer was charged with first-degree murder, and the three surviving constables—Lisa Forbes, Antonio Correa and Scharnil Pais—all testified that Northrup had been standing in front of Zameer’s vehicle. But a traffic reconstruction expert, also from the TPS, testified that Northrup was on the ground and out of sight when he was hit.
Following Zameer’s acquittal in August of 2024, Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy alleged that the three constables had not only lied under oath but had colluded to do so. In response, TPS chief Myron Demkiw invited the OPP to launch a criminal probe into the matter.
That report became public today and revealed that the OPP considered videos, digital forensic downloads, collision mapping data, photos, forensic reports and physical exhibits in their investigation.
The OPP also engaged its own collision reconstruction expert to examine where Northrup would have been at the time of impact. The result was an alternative account of events, in which Northrup was within Zameer’s line of sight when he was hit—and one that discredits the testimony of the TPS’s own traffic reconstruction officer.
In a news conference today, Demkiw called the report a thorough and detailed recounting of the day’s events and stressed the hardship that Justice Molloy’s allegations caused the three accused officers. “In the court of public opinion, some had convicted them,” said Demkiw. “That is an extraordinarily heavy burden for anyone to bear.”
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Demkiw was joined by Toronto Police Association president Clayton Campbell, who hailed the report as a vindication of the three officers. “Jeff is no longer here with us because he stood in front of a car,” said Campbell. “He was struck and killed by Umar Zameer.” Campbell even called for Justice Molloy to apologize to the officers she accused.
Reporters questioned whether the public could trust one police service to investigate another. In response, Campbell referenced the Project South investigation, in which several serving TPS members have been charged by York Regional Police for an alleged conspiracy involving murder, drug trafficking and obstruction of justice. “You can’t have it both ways,” he said.
One person who was not involved in the investigation was Zameer himself. In a statement released over the weekend, one of his lawyers, Nader Hasan, said he had “serious misgivings” about the OPP’s “secretive review process” and that such “egregious police conduct” required an independent public review.
When asked whether he thought OPP investigators should have interviewed Zameer, Demkiw replied that transcripts from Zameer’s court testimony and other pieces of evidence from the trial were available to them.
Campbell would not comment on whether the police union would pursue legal action against Justice Molloy but said the three officers were considering their next steps.
Anthony Milton is a freelance journalist based in Toronto specializing in long-form magazine writing. He previously worked as an assistant editor at Toronto Life, where he launched the Front Row newsletter. He regularly contributes all sorts of stories to the magazine, including deep dives on sports, business and housing as well as short-form commentary on our ever-changing city, from its obsession with cherry blossoms to its maddening NIMBYism. His work has also appeared in Maclean’s, Ricochet, TVO, the Trillium and more.
