Ontario ombudsman outs the real police officer who insulted him online

A tense and bizarre public standoff between an Ontario police force and the province's ombudsman appears to have come to a conclusion on Friday after an officer said to have anonymously attacked the ombudsman online offered an "unconditional" apology.

Andre Marin accepted the apology from the previously unidentified officer before publicly outing him as Det. Jeff Caplan, a member of the Durham Regional Police Service's Major Fraud Unit.

“The officer in question reached out to me to arrange a meeting and I met with him Thursday,” Marin said in a statement.

“He apologized unconditionally for his actions and told me he regrets posting those tweets. I believe the apology to be heartfelt and sincere, and I am happy to accept it.”

Marin told reporters on Friday that he felt the Durham Regional Police Service still owed him an apology over the incident. Durham police officials have previously questioned the way Marin handled himself after being insulted on Twitter.

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The incident began last month, when a series of insulting tweets were sent to Marin shortly before he announced an investigation into the Toronto shooting death of Sammy Yatim.

A Twitter account under the name "Joey Mayo" accused Marin of sticking his "big French nose" in places it doesn't belong and alleging the ombudsman was a "carded member" of al-Qaeda.

Marin responded by publishing the identity of the officer he believed to be responsible for the tweets, which turned out to be incorrect.

Durham police later stated that another officer had used a colleague's office email account to create the Twitter profile and send the tweets out himself.

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That officer, now identified by Marin as Det. Caplan, faces a charge of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act.

Chief Const. Mike Ewles said it was "troubling" that Marin would make public allegations without an objective investigation and Marin later apologized to the wrongly-identified officer.

Now that Marin has had a chance to out the correct officer, and that officer has offered an apology, it is likely this whole affair will come to an end.

The sideshow began as Toronto police were being investigated over the shooting death of Yatim and took on a life of its own thanks to the series of veiled accusations and misdirected accusations from people who should know better.

Now, Marin can focus on studying the de-escalation tactics used by Ontario police.

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