Tighter Rules For Schools Training Guards, PIs

Schools that provide substandard security and investigator training in Ontario will soon be subject to police and provincial investigation if they don't comply with new provincial rules.

The new rules, announced Thursday by Rick Bartolucci, minister of community safety and correctional services, come just months after two Star investigations revealed major problems with the province's licensing procedures.

The investigations showed lax rules were resulting in poorly trained guards and investigators and allowing unregistered security academies to offer subpar training to would-be guards.

In September, a Star reporter revealed that, despite five-year-old legislation calling for mandatory training, almost anyone could become a licensed security guard or private investigator in the province for $80 – no training required.

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Private Eyes Meet in Michigan

The Michigan and Ontario Councils of Private Investigators are holding their first joint conference this week with events scheduled on both sides of the border.

During the 2-day conference, Ontario Council President Debbra MacDonald of C3 Investigations is giving participants a look at a case that required her to work undercover for months in order to get the information she needed.

"I went undercover for 4 months to find out that the alleged victim was lying," MacDonald told WWJ Newsradio 950's Pat Sweeting.

"So, it was a very interesting file on a very interesting case. We have ADWC [Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted] coming out and they defend a lot of wrongly-convicted," she said.