How an Air Canada agent stopped this convicted Toronto cop from fleeing Canada

The Air Canada representative at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport doubted the authenticity of a Bulgarian passport held by a traveller trying to board a flight with a one-way ticket to Rome in late August.
A Canada Border Services Agency officer arrived to investigate.
The traveller claimed he’d used the passport to enter Canada looking for a job in the security business two weeks earlier, and, since he could find no work, he was going back to Bulgaria. Except there was no record of anyone entering Canada with that travel document, nor did the man look as old as someone born in 1955 — the date of birth on the passport. And the passport lacked any immigration stamps or security features.
The man was “showing signs of nervousness,” avoiding eye contact, his hands were shaking and he had just one carry-on suitcase and a backpack, a CBSA report noted. When asked about the details of his trip, the man provided vague responses.
A search of his luggage soon unravelled the deception — inside was a European Union Republic Identity Card issued to Boris Borissov, born 1973.
When questioned, Borissov admitted that he had a Canadian passport in that name but did not have it with him. (He had in fact surrendered it as part of the conditions of his release on bail.) He claimed that he had mailed his Canadian passport to Bulgaria in order to return to Canada.
A quick Google search, however, led the Quebec authorities to confirm the traveller was in fact a veteran Toronto police officer who had already been convicted of multiple criminal charges and that, as a condition of his release on bail ahead of sentencing, he was not to leave Ontario.
Borissov was arrested for failing to comply with a release order and, after being treated in a Montreal hospital for a panic attack, he was returned to Toronto.
All these details emerged at a subsequent bail hearing and remained under a publication ban until last week, when Borissov pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a release order.
As a result, a judge added 11 months to the seven-year prison sentence he received earlier this month for his Toronto offences.
At his Toronto trial, Borissov was convicted — among other things — of stealing credit cards and a luxury watch from dead people whose disappearances he’d been assigned to investigate. He was convicted of numerous criminal offences, involving corruption, deceit and fraud after a judge found his testimony “completely unworthy of belief.” (Both the conviction and sentence are under appeal.)
At his August bail hearing after his arrest in Montreal, Borissov’s lawyer, Joanne Mulcahy, referenced her client’s issues with “significant alcohol addiction” and PTSD. She told the justice of the peace how he had sought treatment but had returned to booze, which may have a “significant bearing on the allegations before the court, which frankly are not particularly sophisticated and if you accept them are unbelievably stupid.”
Prosecutor Jason Nichol said there was no indication Borissov was under the influence at the Montreal airport, where he was “caught red-handed trying to flee the jurisdiction.” Nichol called the conduct “shocking,” and said Borissov had engaged in a “web of lies” when questioned by the CBSA officer.
It would be “hard to imagine” a more “overwhelming case for detention,” Nichol told the justice of the peace. “He is still a cop sworn to respect and uphold the law.”
The justice of the peace agreed he needed to be detained and Borissov has remained in custody ever since.
Borissov, who joined the Toronto police in 2005, remains suspended without pay while the force plans to terminate his employment.