Investigators say they believe that he passed that information along to the criminal group that organized the attempted assassination. That suspicion, in turn, made it clear to investigators that there was much more going on. The revelations have rocked the Toronto Police Service, a force of 8,500 that handles some of the country’s most complex urban policing issues in its largest, most sprawling city, including gun violence and car thefts.
On Thursday, Constable Barnhardt and seven other officers, including a father and son, from Canada’s largest metropolitan police force were charged in connection with the investigation. The officers, one of whom is retired, are facing charges of criminal corruption, bribery, drug trafficking, harassment and unauthorized access to personal information.
Other than the officers, an additional 19 people were arrested.
“This is a painful and unsettling moment,” Chief Myron Demkiw of the Toronto Police Service told reporters at a news conference on Thursday. “Organized crime is corrosive. That it infected our service is unacceptable,” he added.
“You will answer for your actions in a court of law,” Chief Demkiw said.
The investigation began in June 2025, after the prison manager’s home was targeted, police said. More details about why the hit men went to the prison manager’s home were not immediately released, but Deputy Chief Ryan Hogan of the York Regional Police, the agency that is leading the investigation, said he had been targeted for doing his job with “complete integrity.” He provided no further details.
Investigators say they believe that Constable Barnhardt, 56, had obtained the prison manager’s address and other confidential information from internal databases, said Deputy Chief Hogan. The York agency is responsible for policing across the 10 municipalities north of Toronto.
