Penalty hearings for an Ottawa Police Service detective found guilty of discreditable conduct have bogged down over questions of evidence.
The prosecution has asked for a two-year demotion for Const. Helen Grus, a detective with the sexual assault and child abuse (SACA) unit, who was accused of
accessing nine child or infant death cases
in which she had no investigative role or responsibility and failed to record her involvement.
Grus was also accused of contacting the father of a deceased baby to inquire about the COVID vaccination status of the child’s mother. By Grus’ own testimony, she asked the father one follow-up question: if his wife had received a COVID-19 vaccine “because medical professionals were looking into possible adverse events.”
The call was made on Grus’ last shift before she was placed on unpaid leave when the OPS introduced
a vaccination mandate
for its staff. Just before she was placed on leave, Grus said she “suspected potential criminal negligence … by Government of Canada, federal, provincial and municipal health officials.”
Grus was charged with discreditable conduct under the Police Service Act and was suspended on Feb. 4, 2022.
Almost four years later, the case has still not concluded. Disciplinary hearings were held intermittently between Aug. 8, 2022, and Jan. 9, 2025.
Grus was found guilty in March
. Her lawyer filed an appeal in April.
Now, during the penalty phase of the process, hearing officer Chris Renwick, a retired police superintendent, is to rule on the admissibility of evidence in determining a penalty.
The prosecution has argued that some of the affidavits and letters of reference in support of Grus are inadmissible as evidence. In some cases, they were written by people who did know Grus, lawyer Jessica Barrow said.
Barrow also said Grus’ defence had called into question Renwick’s integrity and the integrity of the process and had alleged that it was an “abusive process.”
“It’s an impediment to moving the file forward in a timely manner, and it does a disservice to the reputation of this hearing process,” said Barrow, who asked Renwick to “focus on what’s actually relevant here, focus on the actual legal and factual issues, and try to cut through everything else.”
Earlier in the hearings, the tribunal heard from Grus’ lawyers that Grus was “shut down by a lie” concocted by members of the OPS Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit that led to a never-seen-before discreditable charge that was influenced by political control of the police.
Renwick’s 29-page decision found that Grus “applied her own personal views on the risks and dangers of vaccination policy, formed by her self-initiated research and her strong opposition to her employer’s decision to implement a mandatory vaccination policy.”
The decision said it was not the role of the tribunal “to assess or speak to any aspects of the actions of Canadian public heath leadership on the approvals and implementation of vaccinations, nor weigh into any analysis or position on the science pertaining to vaccinations.”
Speaking to the tribunal on Thursday, Grus’ lawyer, Bath-Shéba van den Berg, said her client, who is now a detective with the robbery unit, was an “incredibly valuable asset to the Ottawa Police Service.”
It’s unfair to Grus and the Ottawa community that Grus be given a two-year demotion “in the absence of evidence that would support mitigating factors,” van den Berg said.
Witnesses had testified to the tribunal that Grus was a capable, diligent, and well-respected criminal investigator. As early as July 2020, she began to actively research COVID-19 material and became an vocal supporter of colleagues who had experienced adverse vaccination reactions and those who opposed mandatory vaccinations, sending unsolicited COVID-19 emails and research material to colleagues, Renwick’s decisions said. Grus was the subject of name-calling, was ostracized by colleagues and experienced “a breakdown in the relationship” with her peers at SACA.
Earlier in the process, van den Berg told the tribunal that her client “noticed a doubling or tripling of infant deaths and saw it as her duty to investigative criminal negligence on the part of the government.”
Three things were happening between June 2020 and January 2022, Barrow told the tribunal — Grus’s research into vaccines, her searches on the police records system and OPS vaccination mandates — and Grus was “applying all three things to her self-initiated, unauthorized project.”
Grus conducted 22 queries on the police records system to support her conclusion that “the government was wrong, and that the vaccine mandate was unfair and unethical,” Barrow said.
If investigative inquiries were ultimately deemed warranted, they would have been carefully considered in consultation with legal, medical, and prosecution experts, Renwick said in his decision. The police chain of command, up to and including the executive, would have to have full knowledge of an investigation.
A reasonable person would conclude that Grus’ telephone call to the parent “had the real potential of bringing discredit to the reputation of the OPS, if it became known, as it undermined the confidence of the family in the ability of the health and medical community to protect their child and to determine a cause of death,” the decision said.
The disciplinary hearings were “divisive and emotionally charged” and there was a significant amount of non-relevant evidence, Renwick said.
“The decorum by counsel during sessions deteriorated to the extent that name-calling and accusations were exchanged,” he said. “The frequency and level of objections while witnesses were testifying was, in my experience, unprecedented, and added several unnecessary days to the 23 and a half days of hearings.”
The hearings also had to be stopped on two occasions to remove disruptive people. Police were compelled to initiate a security protocol tjhat “significantly added to the tension within the hearing room,” Renwick said.
In December 2023,
an unnamed family won a settlement
from the Ottawa Police Service Board. The claim was settled in pre-litigation after lawyers for the family sent a letter to the board claiming “intrusion upon seclusion” under civil law, according to Lawrence Greenspon, a lawyer for the family.
The amount of the settlement was not disclosed.
“Targeting grieving families who have experienced the worst tragedy any parent can face in this lifetime is truly abhorrent and should be condemned in the strongest way possible,” said a statement from the baby’s family, released in December 2023.
Renwick is to decide on the admissibility of the evidence, then schedule more hearing dates.
In a written statement, van den Berg said Grus had always stayed true to her oath and her commitment to the safety and security of the Ottawa communities at large was undisputed.
“Even through the challenges of the past four years, Det. Grus considers herself blessed to be able to serve and protect the citizens of Ottawa with her beloved brothers and sisters in blue at the Ottawa Police Service.”
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