’Where’s the party?’: disgraced ex-WPS officer gave traffic checkstop info to civilian

Elston Bostock was just four days away from being arrested when, on Nov. 2, 2024, the now-imprisoned former Winnipeg Police Service constable texted another officer to find out if there were any traffic checkstops that night.

The other officer confirmed there were no checkstops scheduled, after which Bostock messaged a “non-police officer” with the news, according to search warrant documents filed one day after Bostock’s Nov. 6 arrest.

“No checkstops all night sir…. Coast is clear,” Bostock told the man, not knowing his communications were being monitored by investigators with the WPS professional standards unit.

The man told Bostock he wasn’t drinking that night, but, “Thanks, great to know.”

“I know you aren’t, but others appreciate the info,” Bostock replied. “Where’s the party?”

On Friday, following an application from CBC, a judge lifted a publication ban prohibiting the disclosure of details included in search warrant documents related to Bostock’s arrest.

The 20-year police service veteran was sentenced in January to seven years in prison for a raft of corruption offences spanning eight years.

Bostock was first arrested in November 2024, along with two other officers. He was arrested on more charges in August, along with a newly charged fourth officer. The arrests were the culmination of a lengthy internal WPS probe with help from the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba.

Bostock became the subject of an extensive investigation dubbed Project Fibre after multiple reports from confidential sources that he had been associating with and providing police information “to non-police actors involved in illicit activity,” court was told at his sentencing.

Bostock pleaded guilty to five counts of breach of trust and one count each of drug trafficking, attempting to obstruct justice, obstructing a police officer, theft under $5,000 and disseminating confidential information. He also pleaded guilty to offering an indignity to human remains for sharing a picture he took of the body of a partially nude woman who had died of a drug overdose.

Additional court documents filed after the search warrant was executed detailed dozens of items seized from Bostock’s home, including four sets of brass knuckles, one pair of nun-chucks, several baggies of cocaine and magic mushrooms, and property alleged to have been stolen from crime scenes, including a gold bar and two silver bars, one of them enclosed in a “Whirl-Pak” evidence bag.

Several of the items were seen but not seized by officers who executed an earlier search warrant at Bostock’s home.

“I am aware from my past experience as a police officer that whirl-packs are used by officers at crime scenes to seize and preserve evidence,” wrote the officer who prepared the later search warrant. “I therefore believe it is reasonable to believe, based on the totality of the circumstances and investigation, that this silver bar was stolen by Officer Bostock from a crime scene or police investigation. I therefore believe it is reasonable to believe that the other gold and silver bars are likewise stolen.”

Investigators at the time were still reviewing reports of stolen or missing gold and silver and contacting banks to run serial numbers and verify ownership of the bars, the officer wrote.

Bostock was not ultimately charged with stealing the gold and silver bars.

Three officers caught up in the same investigation that resulted in Bostock’s arrest remain before the court.

Matthew Kadyniuk, 34, pleaded guilty in January to breach of trust and theft under $5,000. He is awaiting sentencing.

Jonathan Kiazyk has been charged with breach of trust, obstructing a police officer and being in a dwelling house. He is set to stand trial in the fall.

Vernon Strutinsky is charged with break and enter to commit an indictable offence and breach of trust. Court records show he is going to trial, but do not indicate a date.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca