He subsequently served with Criminal Intelligence and then the Homicide Squad before being promoted to Divisional Commander and then Acting Staff Superintendent of Detectives.

In London, he presided over the highly publicized and controversial "Project Guardian", in which over two dozen gay men were arrested for involvement in a purported child pornography ring.

[14] While several men were eventually convicted of crimes not related to the stated purpose of the investigation, such as drug possession and prostitution, no child pornography ring was ever found.

Journalist Gerald Hannon later published a piece in The Globe and Mail accusing Fantino of mounting an anti-gay witch hunt.

[15] In response, Fantino filed a complaint with the Ontario Press Council, which ultimately ruled that the Globe should have more clearly labelled Hannon's article as an opinion piece.

John Greyson's CBC documentary After the Bath (1996) also covers the Project Guardian scandal in detail and makes similar conclusions as Hannon.

An incident in September 2000 involving five male police officers entering a woman's bath house sparked public outrage and drew attention to TPS's poor standing in the gay community.

[17] In 2004, Fantino made an attempt to repair relations, primarily by appearing on the cover of fab in a photo which featured him posing in his police uniform with five other models dressed as the Village People standing behind him.

"[19] In his new position with the OPP, Fantino took an aggressive posture with a native protest blocking a major highway: he stated he "would not/could not tolerate the 401 being closed all day."

Lawyer Julian Falconer argued in court that "When Chief Fantino declared there were only a few bad apples, he did not deliver the straight goods," and shut down the investigation before it expanded as part of a damage-control campaign.

[25] In March 2005, the CBC announced that they had obtained documents via the Access to Information Act showing that between 1998 and 2005 Toronto had spent $30,633,303.63 settling lawsuits against police.

This was controversial since chair Norm Gardner had been suspended from the five-man board due to a conflict of interest ruling, but as he refused to vacate his seat the three required votes for renewal were far more difficult to obtain.

This move was criticized by the opposition parties in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, both for the lack of transparency in the hiring process and for the perception that the appointment was primarily motivated by the desire to avoid having Fantino run as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the 2007 provincial election against Finance Minister Greg Sorbara.

"[31] In the face of defence motions for the police to disclose more evidence about their conduct the Crown agreed to drop the most serious charges against Brant in exchange for a plea bargain resulting in a light sentence.

The OPP dropped the disciplinary case against the two officers on December 15, 2009, the same day Fantino was due to be cross examined[36] by defence lawyer Julian Falconer.

The summons came after a December 31 Ontario Superior Court order demanding a formal charge be laid in relation to allegations against Mr. Fantino brought forward by a private complainant, Gary McHale, who alleged that Fantino was illegally influencing or attempting to influence municipal officials in regards to the Caledonia land dispute.

[40] On February 4, 2011, Gerald Guy Brummell of Trenton, Ontario filed a $90,000,000 lawsuit against 36 OPP officers, including Julian Fantino, in the Superior Court of Justice in Cobourg Ontario (File 11/11) alleging a conspiracy and coverup relating to the inappropriate use of the judicial system as a tool of revenge against Brummell and his family for complaining about a death threat by one of their officers.

[45] Following the resignation of John Tory as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario Fantino's name was floated as a possible candidate in the ensuing leadership election.

[55][56] Fantino was elected to the House of Commons of Canada on November 29, 2010, by narrowly defeating Liberal candidate Tony Genco.

Following the departure of Bev Oda, Harper named Fantino the new Minister for International Cooperation portfolio on July 4, 2012, replacing him at National Defence with Bernard Valcourt.

On January 5, 2015, after months of controversy, Fantino was replaced by Erin O'Toole and demoted to the position of Associate Defence Minister.

[4] In the 2015 Canadian federal election, Fantino was defeated by Liberal candidate, Francesco Sorbara in the redistributed electoral district of Vaughan-Woodbridge.

In September 2017, Julian Fantino announced that he was working with Aleafia, a Concord Ontario-based company that is involved in the use of medical marijuana, one of the many start-ups capitalizing on Canada's then-upcoming legalization of cannabis.

In several news interviews, he explained how his attitude to the drug changed during his time as Veterans Affairs Minister when he saw the benefits of pot in assisting soldiers to deal with anxiety, sleep disorders and PTSD.