While investigating allegations of a fake psychologist, police charge a real one
CBC
Investigators have made an arrest in the unusual case of a fake psychologist who was working with the Ottawa police. But in a twist, investigators say the culprit isn't an imposter — but the actual therapist.
Const. Kimberly Cadarette told CBC News in June she believed that the psychologist who had assessed whether she was fit for duty, in a series of face-to-face sessions 14 years earlier, was an imposter.
Cadarette says she was taken off patrol and ordered to see a therapist after complaining about sexual harassment. She says the details of the resulting assessment, which she believes was fraudulent, leaked out and ruined her potential for career advancement.
The assessment bore the letterhead and signature of Dr. Ronald Frey, a clinical psychologist with two decades of experience working with municipal police forces, the RCMP and the Canadian Forces.
In 2020, Cadarette considered legal action against the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) for the historical complaint. But during a Zoom meeting with her legal team, Frey denied writing Cadarette's fit-for-duty report.
CBC News later brought them face to face and, in an extraordinary encounter, both declared they had never met before.
WATCH | Frey, Cadarette come face to face:
OPS asked an outside force, York Regional Police (YRP), to investigate Frey's allegations he'd been impersonated.
On Monday, in an unexpected turn of events, York investigators arrested Frey at his clinic in south Ottawa and charged him with one count of public mischief.
A YRP spokesperson said, in a statement to CBC News, Frey had "twice reported to the Ottawa Police Service that he had been impersonated when he had not."
Asked how they determined Frey's statements were false, they declined to answer, saying: "This forms the evidence for the case and cannot be disclosed as it is now before the courts."
Frey's lawyer, Bruce Engel, says his client has yet to receive any information from the police or the Crown attorney's office, but that his client intends to vigorously defend against the allegation.
"My client has instructed me to vehemently deny all the allegations and vigorously defend him in court. He insists that he has done absolutely nothing wrong," said Engel.
The arrest has also left Cadarette's lawyer, Peter Brauti, flummoxed.
Kamloops Coun. Bill Sarai has apologized after admitting he secretly recorded his argument with Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson in January 2023, then sent a snippet of the conversation to the mayor, suggesting someone else had recorded it.
Yellowknife city council removed $550,000, intended to operate its own dog pound, from the city's draft budget on Monday.
The RCMP says it's considering deploying Mounties-in-training to help police the Canada-U.S. border as political anxiety over border control mounts in the face of tariff threats from the incoming Trump administration.
The death and destruction in the Crosschild family didn't stop at the domestic murder of Autumn, a 25-year-old Indigenous woman killed by Brandon Yellowfly, the man she once wanted to marry.
Josh Smee imagines a future in which food banks no longer exist in Canada, because people don't need them.
The Toronto Transit Commission board has voted to ban electric bikes with lithium-ion batteries from TTC vehicles and stations from November 15 to April 15 each year due to safety concerns.
Prince Edward Island now has a law on the books to regulate service dogs, but it could be two more years before it comes into effect.
The partner of a man who went missing near Chetwynd, B.C. more than six weeks ago says she believes their dog, which disappeared at the same time, has been found alive.
WARNING: This story contains details of sexual assault and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
Multinational food corporation Cargill said on Tuesday it plans to cut roughly five per cent of its staff, or about 8,000 jobs.
The season's first blast of winter weather continued Tuesday in the region and north of the city with some schools and school purpose vehicles cancelled and plows out in force on the roads.