A Toronto Police Service community liaison officer took to his social media account to advertise new special constable and mounted unit roles in Farsi. The jobs came with a salary between $88,520 and $102,278.
Mustafa Safari, as Crime Prevention and Community Relations Officer at 32 Division, posted the recruitment ads on his personal Instagram account, which has over 7.5k followers, many of whom appear to be located in Iran.
Several comments ask Safari if they can apply for the Toronto Police positions from Iran.
“Is it possible to apply and come from Iran,” says one follower in Farsi. “If so, will you give a visa to our family???”
“If you give me a visa, I will come here,” says another. “I have a passport and I do not have a military problem.”
Toronto police arrested Constable Safari in March 2024 following a complaint from a friend of his wife, Sarah Safari.
According to a statement of claim later filed by the couple, Sarah wrote that Mustafa had been verbally abusive and controlling.
The wife’s friend received messages in November 2023, alleging Constable Safari had physically abused her. The friend also alleged that Safari locked his wife inside their bedroom.
The friend reported the messages to the police in January 2024, and Safari was charged with assault and forcible confinement.
The Crown withdrew both charges on August 9, 2024, citing “no reasonable prospect of conviction.”
Together, the Safaris now dispute Sarah’s original account, telling investigators she had embellished the messages and that her husband had not assaulted her.
The couple are suing the Toronto Police Service for $2.4 million.
The Toronto Police Service advertise positions in other non-official languages.
During Asian Heritage Month this May, Chinese-language media promoted a general recruitment drive.
“In recent years, the Toronto Police Service has been actively recruiting officers from diverse cultural backgrounds to better reflect the city’s demographics,” the article said, although the advertisement itself appeared in English.
Other community liaison officers within the Toronto Police Service have also found themselves in hot water this year.
An independent investigation of two Muslim liaison officers and three supervisors substantiated misconduct over an episode of the TPS Project Olive Branch podcast.
Investigators found that the officers’ discussions of Palestine-related issues on the official police social media undermined, or were likely to undermine, public trust.
Appearing in full Toronto Police uniform, Muslim Liaison Officers Constables Farhan Ali and Haroon Siddiqui described the “Islamophobic undertone” of referring to a “Palestinian rally” as a “Hamas rally.”
That case involved a TPS-produced podcast approved by supervisors. TPS has not yet said whether it produced or approved Safari’s Farsi recruitment posts.
Juno News reached out to the Toronto Police Service to ask whether they had any concerns about Safari’s posts or if advertising in languages other than English and French was their official policy. They did not respond.