Even Doug Ford has felt the impact of Toronto’s troublesome coyotes.
Before its simmering coyote population caught the city’s attention, Ontario’s premier’s home in Etobicoke was the site of a turf war between some unyielding yotes and the security detail assigned to protect him, according to police emails obtained using the freedom-of-information system.
At least a pair of cop-coyote run-ins took place about a year and a half ago, according to an email Toronto Police Const. Shari Nevills sent to call for backup on Oct. 10, 2023, hours after the latter incident.
“Apparently there are coyotes (potentially a den) at the edge of the wooded area beside Ford’s residence. According to my officer they are not fearful of humans and in fact chased another officer the other night,” Nevills wrote.
“The officers tried several tactics to try and chase the coyotes away with no luck, short of shooting them. They appear to have no fear of people.”
A police officer’s call for help to the city’s non-emergency line was met by no response, Nevills’ email continued.
Ford, who was recently re-elected to a third stint as premier on his party’s “Protect Ontario” message, seemed — according to the contents of Nevills’ email — to hold a similar view toward the safety of his personal detail.
“The Premier has advised officers they are NOT to patrol the area if the Coyotes are out,” Nevills wrote.
However, the leader of Ford’s regular Ontario Provincial Police-provided security team held a different view. “Apparently the head of the Premier’s security has stated they will start ‘writing up officers’ who don’t do patrols,” Nevills wrote. “But if it isn’t safe for our officers (and at the direction of the Premier) I feel this would be unfair.”
“Would you be able to follow up with the city and animal services to see what might be done,” wrote Nevills, in conclusion.
It had been about two and a half years by then since the Toronto Police took over regular security duties at the premier’s home. A special OPP unit provides security to the premier and some other senior provincial officials. Local police officers sometimes supplement them as well.
One of the Toronto Police colleagues Nevills emailed on Oct. 10, 2023 about the coyote skirmishes at the premier’s house was Supt. Ron Taverner, a senior officer in the area and personal friend of Ford.
Just under an hour later, Taverner responded, “Thanks Shari … I will deal with the head of the OPP security on this!”
“Thank you sir,” Nevills wrote back minutes later.
A spokesperson for the Toronto police declined to respond to questions about the coyote problem its officers encountered at the premier’s house.
Before this story’s publication, Ford’s office hadn’t responded to questions The Trillium asked its spokesperson in an email about his, and Toronto’s, coyote issue.
Starting late last fall — about a year after the brush-ups experienced by the premier’s security detail at his home — there has been an increase in reported coyote incidents in the Fort York and Liberty Village areas in Toronto’s downtown west end.
At least two local dogs have needed emergency treatment after coyote attacks. The city has said the coyotes’ aggression toward dogs is connected to their mating season.
The Coyote Safety Coalition, a group representing residents in Fort York and Liberty Village, claimed six local coyote attacks occurred recently in a single night. Ruby Kooner, leader of the Coyote Safety Coalition, has documented more than 40 reported altercations involving coyotes in the area between November 2024 and February 2025.
What is more disputed is where the coyotes came from.
Some residents, and local councillor Ausma Malik, claim that they were displaced by construction at Ontario Place, which the Ford government is leading the redevelopment of.
Kooner and other locals have said the coyote sightings increased just weeks after hundreds of mature trees and several acres of wildlife habitat were cut down from Ontario Place’s West Island last November.
The provincial government, however, says there is no evidence there had been a coyote population at Ontario Place.
The city is considering hiring a company to use “aversion techniques” on the coyotes, but concedes that killing them is an option.
Relocation is ruled out by a provincial regulation that forbids moving coyotes more than one kilometre.
—With files from Toronto Today and The Canadian Press
