Ontario's Project Brace: Province-Wide Operation Yields 17 Arrests, 55 Charges and 424 Devices Seized in Child Exploitation Sweep

Ontario Provincial Police announced on November 9, 2026, that Project Brace, a coordinated investigation involving 15 police services across the province working with the OPP's Child Sexual Exploitation Unit, resulted in 17 arrests, 55 charges and the seizure of 424 electronic devices from individuals suspected of making, possessing or distributing child sexual abuse material, with investigators initiating 23 additional cases that remain active. Provincial strategy coordinator Tara Clark warned that offenders are increasingly exploiting social media, gaming platforms, messaging applications and peer-to-peer networks to groom victims, distribute CSAM and evade detection, underscoring the need for coordinated technological and investigative responses as online reports continue to climb.

Evidence collection after the fact establishes a prosecution case, but it does not protect the child while exploitation is underway. An AI platform that monitors the shape and escalation of a conversation detects grooming, coercion and material-sharing patterns in real time, alerting a trusted adult or law-enforcement contact the moment risk crosses a threshold. Guardii surfaces children in danger before a device is seized, enabling a parent, school or agency to intervene while contact is active, and providing investigators with the temporal and behavioural intelligence needed to disrupt exploitation at scale rather than documenting it in hindsight.