Ontario Civilian Police Commission suspends investigation into London principal

The Ontario Civilian Police Commission has suspended its investigation into former police services board member and local principal Michael Deeb.

According to the London Police Services board, the commission sent a notification to the board on Thursday that they would be suspending their investigation, citing the pending outcome over the criminal investigation into Deeb as the reason.

Provincial police charged Deeb in April, in relation to an alleged sexual assault of a female student between 2000 and 2001. A day after those charges, Deeb resigned from his role with London’s police services board. He was already suspended from that post after allegations of sexual harassment were made in late December by a local teacher and poet, Najwa Zebian.

In a Facebook post, Zebian outlined how she’d been trying to establish herself as a new teacher in the community and that Deeb was a principal at a local high school. He was twice her age at the time of the alleged behaviour.

Zebian said he took advantage of his position of power, and an emotional dependency she felt at the time.