Mr. Childs graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Windsor in 1995, and completed his articles at the Court of Appeal for Ontario. He has been a member of the Ontario and British Columbia Bars since 1997 and 2021, respectively. His practice spans multiple jurisdictions across Canada, with a specialty in police-related legal issues. His clients include government, police boards, chiefs of police and individual police officers.

Part of Mr. Childs’ present practice involves matters of complexity that benefit from retaining a lawyer from outside the province.

Mr. Childs offers a broad range of skills and experience:

i.  Extensive litigation and advisory expertise in all aspects of the police complaint process;

ii. Served as Deputy Director and senior counsel at the former Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), overseeing the legal and investigations departments, acting on behalf of the Director on judicial reviews in the Divisional Court and Court of Appeal, as well as providing strategic, legal and investigative advice, including on the agency’s transfer of powers, duties and functions to the new Law Enforcement Complaint Agency (LECA) pursuant to the Community Safety and Policing Act;

iii. Significant private-practice experience in police complaint matters, including conducting complaint investigations;

iv. Expertise in employment-related human rights issues, including workplace discrimination and harassment prevention and response, especially in the police workplace;

v. Co-author of the Phase 1 and Phase 2 Final Reports Concerning Conduct Measures Under Part IV of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act (VIEW HERE), part of the RCMP’s response to the 2020 report of The Honourable Michel Bastarache, Broken Dreams, Broken Lives);

vi.  Police board governance, particularly involving the relationship between police boards and chiefs of police;

vii.  Police-related policy development and drafting;

viii.  Labour relations, including three years as president/vice-president of the Ontario Crown Attorneys Association, involving collective agreement negotiations, grievance arbitrations and related matters; and

ix.  Extensive criminal law prosecutions in the provincial and superior courts. Mr. Childs spent 13 years as an assistant crown attorney with the Scarborough Crown Attorney’s office and the provincial Guns & Gangs Initiative, as well as Crown counsel with the Department of Justice (Canada) and agent for the Director of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. In these roles, he prosecuted serious offences, including homicides, conspiracies and complex drug matters.

Mr. Childs has co-authored the last five editions of the Ontario Police Services Act, Fully Annotated (VIEW HERE), considered a definitive legal text on police regulation and related case law in Ontario. He continues as a co-author of the upcoming Ontario Police Statutes, Fully Annotated, which annotates the new Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019 and the Special Investigations Unit Act, 2019. He has also lectured extensively on criminal law issues and the full range of police-related legal issues.

In addition to his legal work in the area of policing, Mr. Childs also has first-hand knowledge of the duties and obligations of a police officer, having previously served with both the Toronto Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police.