[citation needed] Prior to his current position, McNeilly served in legal roles in the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario.
[1] On 4 September 2019, he was appointed as one of the foreign experts to Hong Kong's Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) to help ensure the IPCC's probe into allegations of police brutality during recent unrest in Hong Kong was credible and free of bias.
[2] On 11 December 2019, he and other foreign experts resigned because "a crucial shortfall was evident in the powers, capacity and independent investigative capability of IPCC.
[4] McNeilly was the lead author on the OIPRD's 208-page report entitled "Broken Trust: Indigenous People and the Thunder Bay Police Service" which was released in December 2018.
The decision to end his directorship before finding a permanent replacement raises questions as to its relation to the Divisional Court finding that he changed the decision of a complaint against Toronto Police Service (TPS) Constable Chris Howes from substantiated to unsubstantiated after he had communications with the TPS outside of the complaint process.