The head of Ottawa Police Service’s (OPS) Professional Standards Unit was accused of sending a “threatening” email to Constable Helen Grus—an OPS detective investigating the vaccination status of the mothers of deceased infants. The constable’s lawyers filed a police report during a police disciplinary hearing in response to the alleged intimidation.
During the hearing, lawyer Blair Ector abruptly announced that he was filing a police report as a witness to a crime. The hearing officer adjourned the proceedings, and the constable’s lawyers, along with Ms. Grus, filed a police report for witness intimidation targeting Const. Grus. The lawyers alleged that OPS Inspector Hugh O’Toole had sent Const. Grus an “intimidating” email warning her not to use OPS internal documents in her defense.
Const. Grus, who works in the OPS sexual assault and child abuse unit, is facing a charge of discreditable conduct for allegedly conducting an “unauthorized project” between June 2020 and January 2022. She investigated the sudden deaths of nine Ottawa children, accessing OPS files and contacting the coroner’s office to learn the COVID-19 vaccination status of the parents to look for an association between the two. She also allegedly contacted the father of a deceased infant to inquire into the COVID-19 vaccination status of his wife, without the knowledge of the lead detective on that case. After being suspended without pay in February 2022, she was ordered to return to work with restrictions at an OPS internal hearing in October 2022.
The defence lawyers have argued that the prosecution has repeatedly failed to prove any of the elements of the three charges on Const. Grus’s accusation sheet, and have asked for her disciplinary hearing case to be dismissed. More updates are expected to come as the situation unfolds.