Toronto police officer sacked after assault on cyclist

A police officer in Toronto has been sacked after he admitted committing misconduct on duty over a number of years, including assaulting a cyclist, with the victim sustaining injuries including a broken collarbone.

Police Constable Douglas Jason Holmes was found by a police tribunal to have “violated the public trust by not living up to his oath of office on multiple occasions,” reports the Toronto Star.

Presiding over the tribunal, Inspector Susan Gomes ruled last Tuesday that Holmes should be dismissed from the force within seven days, unless he tenders his resignation beforehand.

“There is no excuse for PC Holmes’ misconduct,” she said, with her report referencing instances of misconduct including his use of “profane, misogynistic and racist” words in texts and emails to other members of the service, with the communications described as “threatening” and “inappropriate.”

The incident involving the cyclist happened in 2017, after Holmes stopped the rider who had reportedly gone through a red light.

After the cyclist declined to show identification to the officer, Holmes attempted to handcuff and arrest him and pushed him to the ground, resulting in the rider sustaining a broken collarbone and big toe.

In another incident involving a cyclist that happened when Holmes was off-duty, he was found in the report to have told the rider that “all millennials are d*cks” and  to have said that “this is a whole generation of f*ck-ups.”

The Toronto Star points out that despite police chiefs having repeatedly urged for it to be made easier to take action against officers found guilty of misconduct, with sacking usually reserved for the most serious cases.

As we have reported previously here on road.cc, there is a long history of tension between cyclists and police officers in Toronto, with police regularly accused of heavy-handiness in their dealings with bike riders.

In 2018, we reported how a police officer who had parked in a cycle lane escaped being charged for dooring a cyclist, in a case which a local personal injury lawyer said sent out “a very poor message” about rider safety.

> No charges for Toronto police officer who doored cyclist after parking in cycle lane

In 2022, an off-duty police officer ​who had earlier been issuing fines to cyclists later crashed his SUV into one in a bike lane – and then claimed he had not seen the rider because the sun was in his eyes. Again, no charges were brought.

> Police officer dishes out fines to cyclists – then crashes his SUV into one in a cycle lane