An Ontario judge has ordered the end to a first-degree murder case over the “torturous” treatment the accused experienced while incarcerated.
Pickering, Ont., resident Joseph Richard Whitlock, Edmonton’s Karn Veer Sandhu and Calgary resident Kulvir Bhatia were charged in April 2023 with first-degree murder and attempted murder in connection with the August 2022 shooting death of Arman Dhillon in Oakville, Ont. A woman also suffered “life-altering” injuries during the incident.
In December 2023, the men were incarcerated at Maplehurst Correctional Complex while awaiting trial when a crisis intervention team of correctional officers allegedly stripped inmates down to their boxer shorts and forced them to sit on the floor facing the wall, with their wrists zip-tied together.
Earlier this year, the Toronto Star released security footage relating to the incident, including correctional officers dressed in tactical gear patrolling as inmates sat on the floor, and published details of an alleged cover-up of conduct by some Maplehurst staff.
Ontario’s ombudsman is investigating the matter and said in June several inmates have had their sentences impacted due to the incident. Maplehurst houses around 1,500 inmates and is rated as medium and maximum security.
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The men accused in Dhillon’s killing — a “terrifying” and planned slaying as police described at the time — will no longer face trial as the treatment they experienced in Maplehurst was so “egregious” the court needs to “dissociate itself from it,” Superior Court Justice Clayton Conlan in his decision Friday.
Conlan said the “pain compliance” and other techniques the correctional officers used, such as turning on exhaust fans to make the area colder as well as pointing their weapons at inmates, was “beyond corporal punishment and was torturous in nature.”
He added the incident “shocks the conscience of the community and offends its sense of fair play and decency.”
“The unthinkable has come to pass. First-degree murder and attempted murder charges will not be tried on their merits. The victims of the shootings and their families and close ones will not see the proceeding continue to its normal end,” Conlan wrote in issuing his judicial stay of proceedings.
“Nonetheless, it is the right decision in my opinion. I think it is the only decision that could have reasonably been made in light of the Court’s findings.”
Judges have the power to impose a stay before or during a trial to protect accused individuals who may have suffered serious violations of their rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or if the Crown or police have abused their powers. A judicial stay is permanent and can only be overturned by an appeal court.
Conlan’s decision may be the most serious consequence of the fallout from the Maplehurst scandal.
In August, Superior Court Justice Jennifer Woollcombe reduced the parole ineligibility period for convicted killer Linval Ritchie due to the Maplehurst scandal. Ritchie was left wearing only his boxer shorts for about 37 hours during the event.
He pled guilty to the second-degree murder of his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Virgioni in June 2022, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole eligibility for 18 years.
The killing of Virgioni is “factually one of the most gruesome and horrific second-degree murder cases” Woollcombe said she has encountered during her decade of experience as a judge.
Woollcombe said the ineligibility period should be 20 to 22 years based on the circumstances of the case, but that she would reduce the ineligibility period to 18 years because of the violations of his rights.
— With files from Isaac Callan and The Canadian Press
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Judge tosses murder charges over ‘torturous’ treatment at Ontario jail
