Entrepreneur removed from Toronto police board after CBC investigation into seemingly fabricated employees | CBC News

Nadine Spencer has been removed from the Toronto Police Service Board.

City council passed an urgent motion from Coun. Shelley Carroll (Ward 17), without debate, on Thursday to rescind Spencer’s appointment to the board of the largest police service in the country.

Earlier this month, a CBC Toronto investigation discovered three seemingly fabricated, or misrepresented, employees on the websites of marketing companies owned by Spencer. 

At that time, in a series of email statements provided through her lawyer, Spencer “categorically” denied that her employees were fabricated. 

CBC’s findings on Spencer’s company, BrandEQ, came after some members of the Black Business and Professional Association (BBPA) raised concerns about how BrandEQ received more than $1.1 million in contracted work from the charity over the course of the six years Spencer was either president of BBPA’s board of directors, or its CEO.

In a written statement to CBC Toronto at the time, Spencer said she’s proud of the work she did at the BBPA to lift up others in her community, and “any suggestion I did so to benefit myself is false, and frankly, absurd.”

Spencer was appointed to the Toronto Police Service Board by city council in spring 2023. Until her removal, she was one of seven board members in charge of overseeing the budget and operation of the service.

CBC Toronto has reached out to Spencer for comment but has not yet received a response.

In the same motion, city council appointed Chris Brillinger to take Spencer’s place on the police board for a term ending in November 2026. Brillinger is currently the executive director of Family Services Toronto, which assists individuals and families facing mental health and socioeconomic challenges.