Provincewide child sex exploitation crackdown leads to 17 arrests
Published:
Ontario Provincial Police say 17 people have been arrested and 55 charges laid after a joint effort called ‘Project Brace’ involving 15 police forces across the province.
They included Greater Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins, North Bay and Thunder Bay.
“Investigators targeted individuals making, possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material,” police said in a news release Monday.
Of the 17 people arrested, none were from the north.
“Online offenders are increasingly leveraging digital technologies to access and exploit children and youth,” said OPP provincial strategy coordinator, Tara Clark.
“Through social media, gaming platforms, messaging applications, and peer-to-peer networks, they use deceptive tactics to groom victims, distribute child sexual abuse material and evade detection.”
A total of 424 electronic devices were seized and investigators initiated 23 cases that remain active, police said.
Police ask anyone with any information related to child sexual exploitation to contact police or report it to cybertip.ca.
FBI tip about child sexual abuse, exploitation leads to charges: N.S. RCMP
Published:
Two Nova Scotia men are facing charges of sexual offences involving children following a tip from the FBI to the RCMP.
The RCMP says the FBI sent them information about a Halifax-area man identified in a Tennessee-based investigation on Oct. 1. The man had allegedly posted child sexual abuse and exploitation material online, according to an RCMP news release.
Police executed search warrants at the man’s residence and a business on the same day. They seized electronic devices and arrested the men.
Brenton E. W. Mitchell, 39, was charged with:
- making child sexual abuse and exploitation material
- distributing child sexual abuse and exploitation material
- possession of child sexual abuse and exploitation material
Mitchell appeared in court on Oct. 2 and remains in custody. He is scheduled to return to court on Nov. 26.
Following a forensic examination of the seized devices, police say they identified a man in the Antigonish area who had allegedly communicated Mitchell about the sexual abuse of a child.
Officers executed a search warrant and arrested a 49-year-old man in Antigonish on Nov. 4.
Gary Kennedy Chisholm was charged with making arrangements to commit a sexual offence against a child. He was released on conditions and is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 23.
Why was he released? What a stupid idea!
“The sexual abuse and exploitation of children is among the most serious crimes we investigate,” says Const. Kelli Hennessy, an RCMP officer with the Integrated Internet Child Exploitation Unit, in the release. “This investigation highlights how information sharing and collaboration among policing partners can help identify offenders, regardless of where they’re located, and help ensure children are protected.”
Man charged in connection with 20-year-old Calgary sexual assault
Published:
A man has been charged in connection with a Calgary sexual assault police say happened 20 years ago.
According to police, the suspect was 14 at the time and cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
A sexual predator should have no rights, regardless of age.
But on Monday, they said he’d been charged with a single count of aggravated sexual assault.
The incident he’s believed to have committed occurred around 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 6, 2006, in the 500 block of 47 Street S.E.
Police say a woman, 18, was walking through a school field when she “was sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times.”
A DNA profile was collected in the aftermath and entered into the national data bank.
This past Sept. 21, police say investigators were alerted to a DNA match.
Staff Sgt. Tom Hanson says the local force will “never stop pursuing answers for victims of sexual assault, no matter how much time has passed.”
“This case was moved forward by the persistence of many investigators, from those who began the investigation in 2006 to those who saw it through to a charge,” Hanson said.
“Unsolved doesn’t mean forgotten.”
Ontario resident charged after international child exploitation investigation
Published:
A 47-year-old London, Ontario man is facing 11 charges following an investigation by the London Police Service Internet Child Exploitation Unit.
According to police, the investigation began after Homeland Security Investigations conducted a probe between January and October 2025 into international child sex trafficking organizations that facilitate livestream child sexual abuse.
In October 2025, the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation’s Human Trafficking Division conducted an operation that resulted in the rescue of five children. Information related to alleged criminal offences was later provided to the RCMP National Child Exploitation Crime Centre’s Transnational Child Sex Offender Unit with assistance from the Child Rescue Coalition, Homeland Security Investigations and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada.
On June 9, 2026, the RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre notified London police that the investigation involved a London resident.
Members of the London Police Service Internet Child Exploitation Unit executed a search warrant at a residence in the area of Grosvenor and Gammage streets on Nov. 5. A suspect was arrested and electronic devices were seized.
Police said investigators located evidence of child sexual abuse and exploitation material.
The charges
As a result of the investigation, Timothy Ryan Shirk, 47, of London, is charged with:
- Three counts of agreement by telecommunication to commit specific criminal offences with another person under or believed to be under 16;
- Two counts of agreement by telecommunication to commit specific criminal offences with another person under or believed to be under 18;
- Publishing, printing or possessing for publication child sexual abuse material;
- Possession of child sexual abuse and exploitation material;
- Sexual assault as a party to an offence;
- Sexual assault;
- Sexual interference with a person under 16; and
- Obtaining sexual services for consideration from a person under 18.
What’s next?
Police said the accused appeared in court on Nov. 5 and was later released on conditions, including that he not be within 20 metres of a public park, public swimming area, daycare centre, school grounds, playground or community centre. He is also prohibited from being alone with anyone under the age of 18 and from possessing weapons.
A photograph of the accused has been released by police because of the nature of the charges and the court-imposed conditions.
Shirk is scheduled to reappear in a London court on Jan. 28, 2027.
