On April 22, 2023, CBC aired an interview with Inspector Hank Idsinga, the former head of homicide at the Toronto Police Service. Here are excerpts from the interview:
Hank Idsinga: I have not stepped foot in police headquarters since September 22nd of 2023, and I don’t think I would be welcome back at police headquarters.
Adrienne Arsenault: Imagine that from the man who was once the most well-known cop in Canada’s biggest city, homicide inspector Hank Idsinga. A senior officer working on some of the most notable crime cases in Toronto, including the investigation into serial killer Bruce MacArthur. Proud to be a cop, and proud of the Toronto Police Service, he worries about that force and bigotry.
Hank Idsinga: I could write a book centered around that topic.
Adrienne Arsenault: Racism, antisemitism.
Hank Idsinga: Racism, antisemitism, tyrannical behavior, corruption, uh, dysfunction in the senior ranks.
Adrienne Arsenault: He did write a book about his 34 years in policing: cases solved, those that haunt. He called his book The High Road — sign enough he didn’t entirely expose what or who enraged him. What he is willing to say is bad enough.
Hank Idsinga: I don’t go around telling people, you know, my grandfather was a Holocaust victim. So people, when they don’t know my background, perhaps let their guard down a little bit. There was an officer in the ranks above me who referred to a kosher barbecue as a Jew Q, and I kind of said, “You think that’s really an appropriate term?” And they were like, “Oh yes, you know, it’s hilarious.” I thought, no, it’s not so funny, right, considering 20th‑century history, and I kind of left that alone.
And it was months later, when there was a video on our internal intranet and one of the officers featured in the video, unbeknownst to me at the time, was Jewish, and I walked in on the same senior officer who was watching that video, and they paused that video and looked at me and gestured towards the screen and said, “You know, the only reason he gets away with this is because he’s a f—–g Jew.” And that blew me away.
And months later, I was with that same senior officer on our way to a meeting with a lawyer who happened to be Jewish. And that senior officer said, “I can’t believe we have to pander to this f—–g Jew.” And that really was a seminal moment when I said, “Okay, you know what? I was pretty sure you’re a Jew‑hater. Now I’m positive you’re a Jew‑hater.”
Adrienne Arsenault: You said this to him?
Hank Idsinga: I kept it to myself. I sat in that meeting and literally didn’t say a word, just kept my head down, thinking, this is repulsive.
Adrienne Arsenault: Repulsive, yes. And also he suggests a pattern of antisemitism and anti‑Black racism. Here’s just one example. There are, he says, more.
Hank Idsinga: I had 12 detective sergeants in homicide running the six investigative response teams. Two of those officers were Black. And we had a senior officer who, at one point in time or another, summoned those two officers to their office and verbally tore a strip off of them. And they come back and they report to me, and I’m like, they haven’t done that to any of the other detective sergeants in homicide. Probably could have justified doing it on some occasions to some of the other officers, but only did it to those two.
And in that case, I think, I don’t even think they realize they’re doing it. But it’s obvious to the people who are watching that it’s being done.
Adrienne Arsenault: The person you’re talking about who’s clearly an antisemite, the senior officers who picked on the Black officers?
Hank Idsinga: Yeah, because they’re Black.
Adrienne Arsenault: Do you have any reason to think that they then took those abhorrent behaviors into the public realm?
Hank Idsinga: The senior officers would have very little interaction with the public realm. But if you look at those senior officers who are still in control when we have our post–October 7th protests going on, and everyone’s scratching their head and saying, “Why aren’t the police doing anything here? Why are we not seeing a response when it’s this particular community that’s being victimized?” that very well might explain some of it right there and then.
Adrienne Arsenault: Do you have any reason to believe that antisemitic senior officers were in charge of decisions around deployments at those protests?
Hank Idsinga: Absolutely.
Adrienne Arsenault: Police services exist to serve the population. So to talk with Hank Idsinga is to know some listening will nod in sad recognition. Others will be newly rattled and maybe scared. I’m trying to imagine the position of a citizen who wants to call the police because of antisemitic or racist behavior that they feel victim to. Do they have reason to feel safe in making that call?
Hank Idsinga: If you call to make a complaint about antisemitic behavior, let’s say just to package that in a nutshell, you need to be aware that the person you’re making that complaint to very well might be an antisemite themselves. That’s why you have to constantly stay on top of that complaint that you’ve made. Who’s it been assigned to? What’s their contact info? What’s going on with it, right? That’s something the public really needs to do when they do make that complaint.