Corrupt WPS officer’s criminal actions over eight years ‘fundamentally corrosive,’ Crown says during sentencing hearing By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 11:41 AM CST Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 Last Modified: 6:48 PM CST Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 Updates

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Former Winnipeg Police Service constable Elston Bostock trafficked drugs, interfered with crime scenes, fixed traffic tickets for friends and other officers and shared confidential information that put the public in harm’s way during an eight-year run of criminality.

“A complete abdication of the professional duties of compassion (and) humanity expected of a police officer.”

But in May 2021, when Bostock shared a cellphone photo he took of a partially naked woman who had died from a drug overdose, he earned “the unenviable distinction of being the only other officer (in Canada) to ever defile his badge in such a way,” Crown attorney Ari Millo told King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne at a daylong sentencing hearing Tuesday.

That crime, Millo said, “represents a complete abdication of the professional duties of compassion (and) humanity expected of a police officer at a moment of profound human loss.”

“That woman had just died, wasn’t dressed and was as vulnerable as a person can be,” Millo said. “By abusing the authority entrusted to him, Bostock compounded the harm to the victim’s family, transforming a devastating personal loss into a profound and enduring loss of their confidence in policing, their sense of safety in the community.”

Bostock sent the picture to two other officers and made degrading sexual comments about the woman’s body.

“My mom was a good person and she deserved to be treated kindly, even after she passed away,” the woman’s 13-year-old daughter wrote in a victim impact statement read out in court.

“Because of this, I don’t trust the police anymore. The police are supposed to help people and do the right thing…. My mom deserved better and so did our family. I want people to understand what this officer did hurt me very deeply. I am just a kid and this has changed how safe I feel. I don’t want any other kid to feel this type of pain.”

“What this officer did hurt me very deeply. I am just a kid and this has changed how safe I feel.”

Bostock, 49, pleaded guilty on Nov. 7 to five counts of breach of trust and one count each of attempting to obstruct justice, obstructing a police officer, theft under $5,000, disseminating confidential information, and offering an indignity to human remains.

Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking drugs — including cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy), psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and illicit marijuana — between early 2016 and late 2024.

Prosecutors are seeking a total sentence of seven years in prison.

Bostock became a police officer “to do good and help others,” and put in several years of “good service” before the daily stresses of the job sent him into a depression and he started using drugs and alcohol to cope, defence lawyer Richard Wolson said.

“He was simply, without question, spinning out of control,” Wolson said. “There is no question he has been suffering for years.”

As a former police officer, Bostock’s life is in danger in custody and he spends as much as 23 1/2 hours a day in his cell, his lawyer said.

“A police officer in a prison is a very difficult thing for an institution,” he said. “The only way to keep them safe is to keep them in segregation.”

Wolson called the Crown’s seven-year sentencing recommendation “excessive” and urged Champagne to impose a short prison term “that will give him some hope after a very dark time.”

A 22-year veteran of the Winnipeg Police Service, Bostock was first arrested in November 2024, along with two other officers. He was arrested on more charges in August, along with a fourth officer. The arrests followed a lengthy internal probe by the WPS professional standards investigators, dubbed “Project Fibre.”

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, on 22 occasions between February 2017 and September 2024, Bostock attempted — 12 times successfuly — to get traffic tickets for friends and associates voided, usually in exchange for liquor or gift cards. He also repeatedly looked up licence-plate numbers in internal police databases, passing on personal, confidential information to drug dealers and other named “associates.”

In one unsuccessful effort uncovered after investigators tapped Bostock’s cellphone, he contacted a junior constable and tried to persuade him to provide false information to a Crown attorney handling an acquaintance’s traffic matter.

Bostock “suggested that the Crown would not object, because prosecutors were overburdened and unlikely to pursue the charge,” said the agreed statement of facts.

Millo said Bostock “groomed” junior officers to normalize corrupt activities, exploiting their inexperience.

“Bostock’s readiness to compromise his sworn duties for trite and personal benefit is deeply aggravating and fundamentally corrosive to the confidence in the administration of justice,” he said.

In October 2022, Bostock and another officer stole marijuana from a bag found inside a Stradbrook Avenue apartment suite they were guarding until investigators could secure a search warrant.

Bostock and the other officer took a photo of a cache of drugs found in the suite, including a large bag of marijuana, shortly after their arrival. Investigators later took more photos and noticed, after comparing the two sets of photos, that the bag of marijuana appeared to have been moved.

When later questioned about the discrepancy by a senior officer, Bostock and the other constable — who were supposed to wait outside the suite until investigators arrived — said they had gone inside the suite to use the washroom and admitted to picking up the bag of marijuana.

In the months that followed, Bostock and the other constable were separately partnered with a junior constable for a short period of time, during which both admitted to stealing marijuana from the suite.

On at least six occasions uncovered by investigators, Bostock disclosed confidential information to “associates.”

“The gravity of the collection of offences before the court cannot be overstated,” Millo said. “There is no question that Elston Bostock’s actions over the course of some eight years constitute a profound repudiation of the standards expected of an officer of the law.”

Evidence of the drug trafficking was uncovered after Bostock was arrested and investigators seized his cellphone.

An agreed statement of facts documents 10 incidents in which Bostock discussed or arranged the purchase or sale of drugs with friends and acquaintances, including a July 2022 drug deal where Bostock arranged to pay his cocaine supplier $500 outside the West District police station on Grant Avenue.

Crown attorney Janna Hyman described the drug dealing as “social trafficking” that was not profit-motivated.

“This was in the nature of a ‘pharmacy,’ in the sense that whatever substance people wanted, Mr. Bostock was prepared to either provide from his own supply or he was prepared to go out and source” the drugs himself, Hyman said.

“I’m truly sorry.”

“These offences were often committed while on duty, in police vehicles, in police spaces,” she said.

Bostock apologized to family members of the deceased woman whose photo he shared with other officers.

“There has not been a single day that has gone by in the last number of months I have been incarcerated that I haven’t regretted the indignity I have caused for them,” Bostock said.

“I’m truly sorry for tarnishing the reputation of the Winnipeg Police Service and the members who risk their lives protecting the citizens with honour and integrity.”

Champagne will sentence Bostock on Jan. 23.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

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