Judge acquits Toronto teen who stabbed unarmed 18-year-old, mocked his death
During a fight between two groups in a North York parking lot in the early morning hours of July 8, 2022, a teenage boy swung at an unarmed man with a bottle, fatally stabbed him, and then later sent messages to the victim’s friend appearing to mock his death.
Three years later, a judge has acquitted him of manslaughter.
A years-long investigation into Durham police found that the service’s top brass oversaw a “poisoned” workplace culture that was rife with favouritism and harassment.
The Star has obtained a redacted copy of the report that officials have previously refused to release, and, for the first time, is able to reveal some of its findings.
Even though an election call is not within sight, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre appears to be in full campaign mode as he brings his party’s platform to locations across the country. At the forefront of his message is one that resonates with Canadians: crime and keeping the public safe.
This is great, LOL. @fancypants_s https://t.co/bKgFD10uFp
— Patti Jo (@TheSupeHero) October 31, 2025
h/t Patti Jo
Christopher Jung, a 73-year-old Toronto taxi driver originally from Poland, was “the happiest he’d been in a long time” in October 2021 — the COVID lockdowns had eased, and could finally return to work. He wouldn’t live to see November. On an evening shift Oct. 24, a teen he had driven to Scarborough would reach under the plexiglass divider with his handgun and fire a fatal seven shots into his body.
Bill C-14, Justice Minister Sean Fraser’s proposed bail reform law, was marketed as a bundle of “sweeping reforms.” In reality, we’re getting no such thing. This bill is just a facade, giving only the appearance of grand change.
Sentencing-wise, C-14 would mandate consecutive (back-to-back) sentences for breaking and entering, but only when the offender is also being sentenced for violence- or gang-related motor vehicle theft. And if someone is caught a second time committing a violence- or gang-related motor vehicle theft, C-14 would require time for those crimes to be served consecutively. Lastly, the bill would require that any extortion sentence be served consecutively to arson from the same event.
The total number of home invasions in the Toronto area has doubled in the year to date, local police say.
Headlines about homeowners being charged with aggravated assault for defending their families against armed intruders has sparked a wave of middle class panic.
Organized crime has concluded that violent break-ins committed by hired juvenile hoodlums is a lucrative and low-risk pursuit.
Canada has a drug problem that our leaders refuse to face. This isn’t just about overdoses or addiction — though that alone is tragedy enough. It’s about cartels and organized crime groups using Canada as their safe base, running drugs into the United States and around the world while our government turns a blind eye. Everyone in Ottawa knows what’s going on. They read the same intelligence reports, they see the same RCMP briefings, and they know thousands of Canadians are dying every year. But what do we get in response? Committees, titles, press conferences — and no real action.
Next week, the Canadian government will bring forward a new bail reform bill aimed at cracking down on violent and repeat offenders, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Thursday.
The new legislation will target those accused of serious crimes such as violent auto thefts, breaking and entering, human trafficking, as well as sexual and violent assaults, in an effort to keep those accused of such acts, out of Canadian communities.
“Right now, in most bail hearings, the starting point is to release, and the Crown must prove why someone should not be released on bail, making it too easy for repeated violent offenders to quickly get back on the street, sometimes back into the same communities that they just committed crimes in,” Carney said. “Our new law will flip that script.”
Aaron and Heather Spencer’s nightmare began in the Spring of 2024 in Lonoke County, Arkansas, when they learned that a 67-year-old man had been sexually abusing their 13-year-old daughter.
At the time, the child had “spent more days than not helping care for her dying grandpa,” according to a Facebook post Heather wrote. The parents had decided to give her some free time. She was targeted by a man “old enough to be my father” who began grooming the daughter through text messages.
The head of Canada’s largest municipal police union is pushing the federal government for tough-on-crime measures, including stiffer sentences for young offenders, after a series of violent crimes allegedly involving youth suspects.
Toronto Police Association (TPA) president Clayton Campbell, whose union represents nearly 6,000 officers, says recent homicides illustrate the need to overhaul the legislation that governs how the criminal-justice system treats youth who commit violent crimes.
Whenever someone like Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre suggests tightening up bail laws in Canada, someone else — a criminologist, prisoners’ rights advocate, Liberal cabinet minister — is quick to point out that crime fell 3.6 per cent across the country in 2024.
Some members of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) are pushing for a ban on face coverings in public places, but the province has not confirmed whether it will act on the proposal.
The party originally planned to consider a ban on masked protesters at its weekend convention in Gatineau, but an amendment calling for a complete ban on face coverings in public received support from more than half of party members, including from Secularism and French-language Minister Jean-François Roberge.
You will find convicted sex offender Randall Hopley in the dictionary somewhere between pond scum and sewage.
The pedophilic scofflaw has repeatedly breached parole, probation, bail and any other condition the justice system lays on him. And yet, the last chances keep on flowing.
“I can’t kill myself. I have too many people I want to hurt.”
This is the story of an incorrigible child who became an irredeemable adult and a designated dangerous offender.
It’s also a cautionary tale and refutation for those who believe everybody can be fixed, no matter how villainous, how recidivist and how sociopathic. If only, you know, there had been timely intervention in their formative years, proper guidance, mental health supports and a societal safety net to catch the bad seeds before they take permanent root.
