The nomination papers were filed quietly, on a Friday — a routine administrative act that carries anything but routine weight. Parthi Kandavel, the first-term Toronto city councillor representing Scarborough Southwest, has registered to seek re-election to Ward 20, even as an Ontario Provincial Police investigation into his conduct with property developers remains active and unresolved.
Kandavel has denied any wrongdoing. He has said publicly that he expects the investigation to exonerate him, and nothing in Canadian law or Toronto’s municipal rules prevents a person under police investigation from standing for elected office. He has not been charged with any crime. Still, the decision to register for another term places him at the centre of what is shaping up to be a closely watched race in one of Scarborough’s most contested wards.
Nine other candidates have also filed in Scarborough Southwest.
Among them is Kevin Rupasinghe, an engineer who finished second to Kandavel in the 2023 Scarborough Southwest byelection that first brought the councillor to office. Policy professional Sharmina Nasrin has also registered, adding another credible name to a field that reflects genuine community interest in the seat’s future.
The investigation itself was launched by the OPP’s anti-rackets branch, a specialized unit that handles complex financial crime and corruption cases. While the force has not publicly detailed the allegations, the probe appears to have originated from a complaint filed to the city’s integrity commissioner in July 2025. That complaint has not been made public. Under the rules governing the commissioner’s office, however, a referral to law enforcement is required when there are “reasonable grounds” to believe a criminal offence has been committed — a threshold that implies the complaint was treated with considerable seriousness.
On July 30, the OPP confirmed to journalists that the investigation “remains ongoing,” with a police spokesperson declining to offer any further detail on its scope or timeline.
Reporting by the Toronto Star has added texture to what is otherwise a tightly held investigation. The Star found that police have sought information about, or made contact with individuals connected to, at least three separate properties located within Kandavel’s ward. Two sources with direct ties to development projects in Scarborough Southwest alleged that the councillor requested the proponents of those projects make six-figure payments to third parties. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity, citing concern about the potential consequences for their development files.
The sources were careful to note that Kandavel did not explicitly threaten to obstruct their projects. Yet the implicit understanding, they said, was clear: without the payments, their developments risked delays significant enough to impose serious financial costs. That kind of pressure — unspoken but structurally embedded in the relationship between a ward councillor and the developers who need city approvals — is precisely what anti-corruption investigations are designed to examine.
Kandavel’s decision to run again forces Scarborough Southwest voters into an uncomfortable position that is, in its own way, a test of democratic norms. Municipal elections in Toronto are decided by residents, not by the outcomes of police files. The investigation may conclude before voting day, or it may not. Either way, the ward’s constituents will have to weigh what they know, and what remains unresolved, when they mark their ballots.
For a community like Scarborough Southwest — diverse, politically engaged, and accustomed to being treated as an afterthought by city hall — the stakes feel personal. The 2023 byelection that sent Kandavel to council was itself a signal of a ward asserting its voice. What happens next will say something, in turn, about how that voice chooses to be heard.
