Fantino reacts to accusations of racial profiling in Timmins case

OPP News Release

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Timmins – A successful Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) marijuana grow investigation in the greater Timmins area, initiated in 2005, has resulted in the conviction and sentencing of two men on May 08, 2007.

Recent comments have suggested that OPP officers based their investigation on racial profiling observations rather than solid investigative techniques. It is alleged that officers initiated their work after seeing the recently convicted men, 41-year-old Zhi Ji CHU and 41-year-old Han Chu HU, both of Toronto, purchasing gardening supplies from retailers in Northern Ontario. In fact, the OPP investigation was initiated 10 days earlier when another Ontario police service alerted OPP Drug Enforcement Section that individuals involved with other grow operations were very likely setting up an operation in the greater Timmins area.

OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino is aware of the facts involved in this investigation and anxious to set the record straight. “The mere suggestion of profiling has undermined the important work of OPP officers. In the past, the lack of information sharing between police services has been criticized. In this case, effective communication linked the individuals, their vehicles and their criminal associations to other grow operations in Ontario long before the men were observed by OPP investigators taking their shopping lists into the stores.”

“Outstanding police work led to these arrests, charges and convictions. Allegations of racial profiling are unfounded,” he said. “Of greater importance, 40,000 marijuana plants were destroyed, keeping drugs off our streets."

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