October 8, 1951 - Bruce McArthur
A self-employed landscaper operating on the margins of Toronto's LGBTQ village, McArthur killed at least eight men over seven years while remaining largely invisible to investigators. The case drew sustained scrutiny not only for its scale but for what the subsequent independent review identified as systemic failures in how police responded to the disappearances — failures that allowed the killings to continue. The Toronto Police Service's handling of the investigation became the subject of four separate reviews and prompted 151 recommendations for reform.
From Wikipedia
Between 2010 and 2017, a total of eight men disappeared from the neighbourhood of Church and Wellesley, the LGBTQ village of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The investigation into the disappearances, taken up by two successive police task forces, eventually led to Bruce McArthur, a 66-year-old self-employed Toronto landscaper, whom they then arrested on January 18, 2018. On January 29, 2019, McArthur pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder in Ontario Superior Court and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for twenty-five years. McArthur is the most prolific known serial killer to have been active in Toronto, and the oldest known serial killer in Canada.
The criminal investigation of McArthur became the largest ever conducted by the Toronto Police Service (TPS) and also called on the resources of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and other police and forensic services. Criticisms of the TPS's handling of the initial missing persons investigations led to several internal reviews, an external review called by the civilian Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) and the formation of a dedicated missing persons unit.
In April 2021, the external review commissioned by the TPSB — known as the Independent Civilian Review into Missing Person Investigations — delivered its final report. The Review found systemic discrimination by the TPS in its investigations and concluded "the Service’s practices, if not culture and structure, prevented it from most effectively investigating the disappearances of these missing men” and made 151 recommendations for change.
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