Yazdan Khorsand was told during the job search process that he had not undergone a background check.
He guessed that it may have been when he was 18 years old, wearing camouflage pants, in a park in Toronto, preparing for a paintball duel with three other young people, the police rushed over to reprimand them and recorded the incident in the database of **.
Or because of a speeding incident when he drove a sports car and called himself "young and stupid".
Khorsand lost his job at Metrolinx for peace after failing to pass a background check conducted by the Ontario Provincial Police. Previously, he had passed an investigation conducted by the Toronto Police to work as a special constable officer with the Toronto Community Housing Corporation — but he left the job and opted for Metrolinx's higher salary.
Khorsand then applied to become a Toronto police officer, learning that he had failed the service's background check.
He tried to return to the Toronto Housing Corporation as a special police officer, but again ran into a background check obstacle.
Khorsand didn't know the exact reason, because ** wouldn't tell him.
Yazdan Khorsand and lawyer, photo: thestar
In a case to be heard Monday in the Ontario Court of Appeal, Khorsand and many interveners, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, are seeking answers that may address some of the current practices of the Service and Police Commission in keeping the reasons for background check failures confidential.
Khorsand, 32, said in an interview: "I've been looking for years and still haven't found anything. ”
All of this, not even a single word of explanation. So he started asking questions, filing a free information request for a record containing his name and seeking judicial review of Toronto Police's refusal to share details of a background check. At the same time, his life had to move on.
Khorsand, who now works as a tester and coder at a game software company, said: "It's really, really hard to swallow and it will definitely take some time to really realize that my law enforcement career is impossible."
In February 2024, a three-judge panel in the Ontario Superior Court ruled that Khorsand had the right to judicial review of the failed investigation and that the Toronto Police Service Commission had "breached a duty of minimum procedural fairness" because they did not disclose why he failed or gave him an opportunity to argue the reasons for his failure.
In a dissenting view, one judge said that the application for judicial review should fail because background checks are part of a private employment matter and are not subject to "public law remedies".
The Toronto Police Commission and Toronto Police successfully sought leave from the Appeals Chamber, arguing that the majority had made mistakes on multiple fronts and that these legal errors were "of grave public importance".
They believe that the decision has important implications for the Toronto Police and other "law enforcement agencies, public agencies or agencies representing the same type of background checks or security clearances."
* and the Police Commission said that providing background check results to job applicants "significantly weakens and could compromise the integrity of investigative techniques and procedures, the security clearance process, and any information collected through the process."
This can have significant security consequences for job applicants, law enforcement agencies and third parties, as well as information sharing between agencies. ”
Attorney Glen Chochla, who represents Khorsand and has encountered similar obstacles, said applicants who intend to become law enforcement officers should have the opportunity to be transparent and challenge reasons deemed unfit to serve as peacemakers.
In a similar situation, Chochla represented two young Black Metrolinx employees who lost their jobs for failing a background check. The situation was eventually brought to the attention of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.
Both former employees hail from low-income areas in Toronto and strive to be successful applicants for union Metrolinx positions with the potential for good pay and benefits, including a first-class pension. Neither of them has a criminal record, but someone in their lives has a criminal record; They believe this is the reason why they failed a background check, even though they were never told the exact reason.
In the Khorsand case, a majority court decision stated that the secrecy surrounding the failed investigation affected not only Khorsand's right to know, but also "public confidence in the management of community law enforcement agencies."
As a special police officer, photo: thestar
Khorsand has no criminal record. He left his birthplace of Iran with his family in 2008 to immigrate to Canada and call it home. Became a Canadian citizen in 2013. Fluent in three languages — English, Persian-Farsi and Afghan Dari — he began to invest in his path to achieving his dream of law enforcement.
He completed his Foundation Diploma in Policing at Trios College in Scarborough, graduating with honors, where he was awarded the title of "Student Ambassador Leader of the Year". In 2018, he graduated from the Basic Police Officer Training Program. In addition, he has taken courses with the Canadian Policing Knowledge Network and earned a certificate from the Ontario Police Association, as well as a certificate from the American College of Surgeons on "Stopping the Bleeding."
He has been a crime reporting volunteer since 2019 and founded a community organization to support the homeless in the same year.
In short, on paper, Khorsand seems like an ideal candidate – but a background check truncates everything. The results of his free information request revealed that he had nine contacts with Toronto**, none of which were criminal acts. Several of these were due to his work as a special police officer.
In several of these incidents, his race and/or skin color have been noted, including in a paintball duel in April 2010, where he was recorded as "Middle Easterner" and "Persian", and on a **Contact card, he was recorded as "General Investigation". At the time, Toronto's controversial, now provincial-regulated approach practice — stopping, questioning, and documenting people who had non-criminal contact — was at its peak, and multiple Toronto Star investigations showed that Black people and other people of color were disproportionately accepted to stop.
Khorsand recalls a police officer who said he might have mistaken the paintball gun for a real gun and shot them. "We're just quietly. You know, we're obviously shocked. We are afraid. We are young," he said.
The anonymized contact data obtained by the Toronto Star included details of Khorsand and three other young men that day — *referring to them as "companions." According to the data, one of them was "contacted" four times in two years.
Regardless of the reasons for the background check, Khorsand believes that applicants who fail law enforcement should know what shattered their dreams and should have the opportunity to challenge those reasons.
That's what we hope at the end of this process," said lawyer Chochla, "and he will be given a reason and a chance to respond." ”