The Project South police corruption case involving current and former Toronto officers is moving toward trial, with prosecutors telling Superior Court on Tuesday that eight indictments are now before the court, Global News reported.
The proceedings involve 13 accused connected to the York Regional Police investigation, which began after shots were fired at a senior corrections manager’s home in Vaughan in June 2025. The case is scheduled to return to court Sept. 18.
Tuesday’s appearance was the first in Superior Court since the Crown announced it would proceed against the 13 accused by direct indictment. That process sends a case directly to trial without a preliminary hearing.
Samuel Walker, lead counsel for the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Justice Prosecutions Unit, told Justice Catherine H. Rhinelander that the eight indictments include one federal indictment. Seven current or former Toronto police officers are named in the indictments, he said.
Former Toronto constable Derek McCormick pleaded guilty in the Ontario Court of Justice on Tuesday, according to the report.
Disclosure and potential wiretap challenges
Walker told the court the Crown considers most disclosure complete. More than 50 sworn documents used to obtain search warrants have been disclosed, including the warrant used for the arrests.
York Regional Police also prepared an investigation summary exceeding 700 pages, the court heard.
Walker said several accused are likely to raise shared issues through pre-trial motions, including challenges to wiretaps. He suggested those challenges should be heard by one judge.
The Crown has consolidated and simplified charges while preparing the direct indictments, Walker said, but its allegations and factual theories remain unchanged.
Investigation began in Vaughan
York Regional Police announced 27 arrests in February as part of Project South, an investigation into alleged police corruption and organized crime.
Police allege Const. Timothy Barnhardt unlawfully accessed confidential information about the corrections manager and passed it to Brian Da Costa and other members of a criminal organization.
Investigators also alleged that Barnhardt and other Toronto officers made unauthorized database searches. Police said some addresses obtained through those searches later became locations of extortion, commercial robberies and shootings.
Barnhardt, who also faces drug charges, appeared from the Central East Detention Centre on Tuesday. Da Costa appeared remotely from the Centre North Detention Centre. Lawyers represented the other 11 accused.
