Toronto cop appears to lose his cool during viral traffic stop

A roughly 30-second video circulating online in recent days appears to show a Toronto police officer conducting a routine traffic stop, shouting at the driver to produce his do***ents.

In the clip, which begins partway through the interaction, a pblockenger appears to be filming as the officer, standing outside the vehicle, allegedly unholsters his weapon. 

When the driver questions why the officer needed to draw his gun, the officer snaps back, “That is none of your business,” and, moments later, yells, “I need your do***ents now.”

The driver, sounding shaken, replies, “Relax, man,” then follows up with, “Jeez, you’re shaking… Is there a reason why you’re shaking?”

The clip was picked up on Friday’s Rebel Roundup livestream, hosted by Ezra Levant, who said he first came across it on an uncredited Instagram post before re-uploading it himself so viewers could see it. He noted the footage appears to have been filmed in Toronto within the past few days, though he could not independently verify the full context of what led up to the stop.

Ezra drew on his own background as a lawyer to interpret the officer’s conduct, recalling that his first job out of law school was articling at a firm alongside a lawyer who had previously been a police officer. That colleague once explained to him why drill sergeants scream and swear at recruits on firing ranges, a practice Ezra likened to the familiar movie caricature of the abusive drill instructor barking at trainees.

According to his former colleague, the exercise is not theatre or hazing. “It’s to simulate what being a cop can be like, and to see if you lose your wits and lose your cool, because you’re the only one in this situation with a gun,” Ezra recounted. “Training, testing, and emotional self-control is one of the most important things for a cop to have, because cops are going to get abused.” 

Ezra distinguished between situations that call for an aggressive, commanding police presence — such as active crowd control — and a routine stop involving a driver sitting quietly in a parked car. 

“There’s a time and a place for a cop to be very aggressive and noisy… to get people to do things without force. In fact, that’s an outstanding tactic of police,” he said. “Not when a guy appears to be sitting calmly in his car, and you just ask him for your license. Holy cow, there are so many problems with Toronto police.”

He predicted no disciplinary consequences would follow under the scandal-clad Chief Myron Demkiw, describing the force as “a dumpster fire police department” amid the unprecedented crime wave in the city’s history.