On February 1, 2018, Toronto Police Service officers recovered a hidden camera from one of the single-stall accessible bathrooms in Bora Laskin Law Library. According to Detective Madiol from the Toronto Police Service’s 52 Division, the camera was hidden in a garbage container with a hole drilled into it. The camera was not operating when police recovered it, and officers did not find footage on the device. His understanding was that a student noticed the camera and called it in.
Detective Madiol speculated that, because of where it was found, the device “was pointed towards the toilet and probably would’ve just captured where people were sitting” rather than faces. He did not know whether the device was using local storage or sending data over the Internet. Police also found no clues about how long it had been there. The camera has been submitted to a police forensics team, but it is unlikely that fingerprints or footage can be recovered at this point.
Detective Madiol referred to the Criminal Code‘s provisions on voyeurism as a potential charge for the person who placed the camera.
Assistant Dean Alexis Archbold notified students via email on February 20, 2018, that “Unfortunately the camera cannot be traced to a suspect, and the matter is now closed with the Toronto Police Service.” Officer de Kloet of the Toronto Police Service’s Corporate Communications Division confirmed that police were no longer searching for a suspect, although the case remains open (in that if additional evidence is discovered, it will be investigated further).
Detective Madiol said that there was nothing the Toronto Police Service could do to prevent a similar incident happening in the future: “You can have increased patrols but there’s no real security cameras inside the [Jackman Law] building that would capture someone doing this sort of thing.” He added that similar incidents happen occasionally in office buildings around downtown Toronto. “Be aware of your surroundings,” Detective Madiol said.
