Category: Politics

Ottawa Police strategically settle a parental compliant the day before Detective Grus’s Judicial Review Hearing

CBC, Ottawa Citizen, CTV deliberately lied to public, Defamed Detective Helen Grus

* CBC, Ottawa Citizen, CTV know that court evidence showed Detective Grus did NOT access the ‘vaccination records’ of the deceased infants – but the outlets nonetheless reported this falsehood on December 7, 2023.

* CBC, Ottawa Citizen, CTV know that court evidence showed that in March 2022, rogue Ottawa Police officers illegally released confidential information to CBC reporter Shaamini Yogaretnam – who then presented an ultimatum to the Ottawa Police Service that the police had only 24 hours to contact the parents of the deceased infants before CBC broke the story.

* CBC, Ottawa Citizen, CTV know that court evidence has shown Detective Grus had absolutely nothing to do with the public release of any information about her investigation of the cluster of nine sudden infant deaths.

* CBC, Ottawa Citizen, CTV know that court evidence showed it was CBC and reporter Shaamini Yogaretnam and the news media’s reporting of stolen confidential police information that resulted in the current OPS settlement.

* CBC, Ottawa Citizen, CTV. also know that the family involved in the OPS settlement includes two Public Health Agency of Canada personnel who monitored and actively sought to influence the OPS investigation of Detective Grus from March, 2022, and even after she was charged in July 2022.

* CBC, Ottawa Citizen, CTV know that the Public Health Agency of Canada is part of the government group that advised and mandated experimental mRNA injections – even declaring that the injections were safe and effective for pregnant women and breastfeeding babies.

* Media Outlets defamed and attacked Detective Helen Grus, calling her ‘rogue’, and dehumanizing and degrading her in public – when those media outlets know that Grus had nothing to do with the illegal release of confidential police information. These media outlets know that court evidence showed the Ottawa Police refused to investigate the rogue police officers who illegally provided confidential police information to CBC reporter Shaamini Yogaretnam.

* CBC, Ottawa Citizen, CTV know that court evidence showed the Ottawa Police illegally, abusively WIRETAPPED Detective Grus and her family – yet they refuse to report this to the public.

Why Do Canadian Media Outlets Promote Lies, Corruption, Defamation, and Cover-ups?

Shaamini Yogaretnam CBC Reporter

Yesterday CBC, Ottawa Citizen, and CTV – all government-subsidized news outlets – published reports of a settlement between the Ottawa Police and mother of a deceased infant who complained of privacy violations but did not file a lawsuit.

The timing of this monetary settlement was clearly a strategic decision by the Ottawa Police Service (OPS). The OPS faces imminent embarrassment and exposure in today’s December 8, 2023, Divisional Court Judicial Review application filed by Detective Helen Grus’s defense lawyers.

The settlement, media release, and published news articles are clearly intended to impact public opinion on the day of a court hearing where Grus’s lawyers have filed court documents detailing extreme bias by both the prosecution and Hearing Officer Chris Renwick in the internal trial of Detective Helen Grus.

Ottawa Police Detective Helen Grus is charged with ‘Discreditable Conduct’ under the Ontario Police Services Act for conducting “unauthorized” investigations into the sudden deaths of nine infants. Detective Grus was investigating any potential connection between the vaccination status of the mothers and the sudden deaths of breastfeeding babies.

In ten days of prosecution hearings in August and October / November 2023, this reporter witnessed firsthand many of the incidents of bias by the Hearing Officer, and outrageous behaviour by Prosecutor Vanessa Stewart. Among other excesses, Prosecutor Stewart weaponized ‘objections’ to prevent Grus’s defense lawyers from effectively cross-examining prosecution witnesses.

Trials Officer Supt. Chris Renwick

Prosecutor Stewart was so obviously attempting to protect the prosecution witnesses from impeachment – one of whom was her own family member sister-in-law Detective Renee Stewart. This conflict of interest was only revealed on the last day of the August hearings and shocked all public observers in the court.

More shocking, however, was that Hearing Officer Superintendent (Retired) Chris Renwick knew and approved of the conflict of interest.

Hearing Officer Renwick Refuses ALL Defence Expert Witnesses

In a decision dated November 26, 2023, Hearing Officer Chris Renwick DISALLOWED ALL FIVE DEFENCE WITNESSES.

Detective Grus’s lawyers sought to have three medical experts, one police expert, and one legal expert testify…

Dr. Eric Payne, Paediatric Neurology,

Dr. James Thorp, Obstetrics and Gynecology

Dr. Gregory Chan, Family Medicine

Ottawa Police Staff Sergeant (retired) Peter Danyluk

Lawyer Shawn Buckley

The biased Tribunal Hearing Officer Chris Renwick disallowed every defense witness.

December 7, 2023 Media Articles

CBC: Ottawa police board settles with family over invasion of privacy

CTV News: Ottawa police board settles with family over officer who accessed dead child’s vaccine records

Ottawa Citizen: Family settles privacy complaint with Ottawa Police Services Board

Much More to Come

This story broke late Thursday, December 7, 2023.

Tune in to The Lavigne Show on Friday, December 8, 2023 at 8am Eastern time when Vlad Tepes, Jason Lavigne and yours truly will provide full coverage.

You can see the show on X (Twitter) @donaldbestca

And on Rumble… The Lavigne Show – with Vlad Tepes and Donald Best

Ottawa Police Detective Helen Grus is charged with ‘Discreditable Conduct’ for conducting purported “unauthorized” investigations into the potential connection between mRNA vaccinated mothers, and the sudden deaths of breastfeeding babies.

“I haven’t yet reported the jaw-dropping testimony about infants dying in their mother’s arms.”

Grus’s trial resumes Monday, October 30, 2023, in Kanata, (West Ottawa) Ontario. The public is invited. (details below)

The initial five days of testimony from three prosecution witnesses in August 2023 produced many shocking revelations. I’ve already covered some of the evidence in previous articles and broadcasts on Jason Lavigne’s Morning Show – but I haven’t yet reported the jaw-dropping testimony about infants dying in their mother’s arms.

A Disconnect Between Prosecution’s Perspective of the Testimony – and Public Gallery Reactions.

Detective Helen Grus

Readers and viewers of my coverage of the first five days at the Detective Grus trial know that I’m running out of adjectives to describe each new revelation that seems more “Shocking”, “Incredible”, “Unbelievable”, “Gasp-producing”, and “Stunning” than the last.

From August 14-18, 2023, the Prosecution led so much evidence that was damning against its own case – that independent media and public observers were left with two obvious conclusions:

1/ The case against Detective Grus lacks any meaningful prosecution evidence at all, which reinforces the widespread belief that the charge against Grus is entirely political, and,

2/ The Prosecution’s perspective and faith in its ‘evidence’ is disconnected from reality and how the public perceives each shocking revelation.

“The prosecutor seems totally unaware that not only is the case floundering, the reputation of the Ottawa Police is increasingly being brought into disrepute with each new witness.”

I have no doubt that by this time, a jury would already be planning a ‘NOT GUILTY’ verdict. But there is no jury of peers involved in this internal tribunal – only Trials Officer Superintendent (Retired) Chris Renwick.

The Ottawa ‘Cluster’ of Sudden Infant Deaths was Seven, not Nine

Defense Counsel Bath-Sheba van den Berg

During the first day of testimony on August 14, 2023, we heard Defense Counsel Bath-Sheba van den Berg explain how the original ‘cluster’ of nine sudden infant deaths should be regarded as seven – because one of the nine children drowned, while another was unfortunately a homicide.

Also, during that first day the prosecution played a video of the May 12, 2022, three-hour long Professional Standards Unit ‘compelled interview’ of Detective Grus.

Many in the courtroom were moved to hear Detective Grus describe why she initiated the investigation into the cluster of Sudden Infant Deaths. She told the Professional Standards Sergeant Jason Arbuthnot that other officers in her unit were disinterested about a spike in infant deaths.

Two of the Seven Deceased Infants Died in Their Mother’s Arms

Later in the recording, Detective Grus explained that two of the seven Sudden Infant Deaths were highly unusual, yet her fellow officers “fluffed it away”…

“These two cases struck a bell suddenly that day because both those babies were sent home healthy. Both those mothers picked them up to feed them, and both of those babies collapsed and went limp in the mother’s arms.

It still gives me chills because to leave it, to just fluff it away.

As a police officer, that’s not enough. I’m a police officer; I’m there to solve and help solve if somebody dies. Especially an innocent little baby.”

Detective Grus also stated…

“I don’t want more babies to die. Whether it’s vaccine-related or not, I want to try to find out why these little babies died… I’m not okay with babies dying and not getting any answers.”**

Testimony from Prosecution Witness: Only 1 in 500 infants die suddenly in Mother’s Arms.

On Tuesday, August 15, 2023, the court heard Detective Grus’s immediate supervisor, Sergeant Marc-Andre Guy, testify that he had for many years been assigned to the ‘Deaths Under Five Committee’.

This multi-disciplinary committee was established under the office of Ontario’s Chief Coroner…

“… to review all cases investigated by a coroner involving the deaths of children under five years of age including neonatal cases where the death was potentially linked to parental behaviour (for example, sleep circumstances/unsafe sleep environment, maternal substance use, neglect, domestic violence, etcetera) and those in which a children’s aid society or Indigenous child wellbeing society (“Society”) was involved at time of the death. The committee did not review neonatal deaths that occurred prior to discharge from hospital where no substantive issues had been identified.”

Sgt. Guy testified,

“I was part of the Death Under Five committee. I went to Toronto three times a year and investigated about 500 infant deaths (in total). I reviewed investigations from other police services. Over four or five years every time I reviewed at least 150 different files.” **

Defense attorney Blair Ector asked Sgt. Guy how common it was for healthy babies to just die in their mother’s arms. Guy replied…

“In my experience it is very rare. I can think of a case or two that the committee reviewed where it happened, but that’s all.”

So there it is. Testimony at the August hearing showed that Detective Grus had every right to be concerned about the cluster of infant deaths and to launch an investigation… when the usual is 1 of 500 babies suddenly dying in their mother’s arms versus the 2 of 7 infant deaths in the Ottawa cluster.

An argument can be made that the sample size (7) is too small to extrapolate from, and that it might be an anomaly. While that position has technical merit, the testimony of Sgt Marc-Andre Guy that he only saw one or two ‘dying in mother’s arms’ incidents in over 500 infant deaths over a five year period is powerful.

Further, Canadians will not have a larger sample size anytime soon because the Ottawa Police Service shut down Detective Grus’s investigation and punished her for daring to ask if mothers’ mRNA injections could have anything to do with the Sudden Deaths of breastfeeding infants.

Conflict of Interest between Prosecutor Vanessa Stewart and Prosecution Witness Renee Stewart

Defense Attorney Blair Ector also pointed out that prosecution witness Detective Renee Stewart investigated one of the cases where the infant died in its mother’s arms.

Then on the last day of the hearings, Friday, August 18, 2023, the public gallery and journalists were shocked to learn that Prosecutor Stewart and Detective Stewart are close family members – sisters-in-law.

My next article will cover this serious conflict of interest that threatens to undermine the prosecution’s entire case.

Grus Hearings – October 30 to November 3, 2023 – 9:30am

Community Boardroom, 211 Huntmar Drive, Kanata, ON

Ottawa Police Service: Police Act Matters – Scheduled Hearings

** Testimony Quotes appearing in this article are taken from my own notes, and may differ from those reported by other journalists or in any official court transcripts.

Legal Defense Fund for Detective Helen Grus

Complete List of Articles about Detective Helen Grus

“I don’t want more babies to die. Whether it’s vaccine-related or not, I want to try to find out why these little babies died… I’m not okay with babies dying and not getting any answers.”

Ottawa Police Detective Helen Grus during her compelled interview by Professional Standards. (Photo: Courthouse prayers for Detective Grus at the first day of her trial.)

Ottawa Police Detective Helen Grus is charged with ‘Discreditable Conduct’ under the Ontario Police Services Act for conducting “unauthorized” investigations into the sudden deaths of nine infants. Detective Grus was investigating any potential connection between the vaccination status of the mothers and the sudden deaths of breastfeeding babies.

Since my August 2023 reporting of the first five days of prosecution testimony in the trial of Ottawa Police Detective Helen Grus, I have been contacted by seven parents whose babies died suddenly and unexpectedly.

The communications came from mothers and fathers in Canada, the USA, and one from Australia.

Each parent expressed support for Detective Grus and told some of their own story and grief. Two of the babies died many years ago, while five died since January 1, 2021 – (which puts the five deaths within the period when the experimental mRNA COVID vaccines were rolled out.)

The common thread was that none of the parents was provided with any answer as to what caused their child’s death. Further, each parent expressed a lack of confidence in the completeness and diligence of medical personnel and / or police. One mother described the police as “callous and didn’t care” about her infant’s death. She stated that she wished Detective Grus had been the officer to investigate.

A Police Detective to be Admired

During the first day of testimony on August 14, 2023, the prosecution played a video of the three-hour long Professional Standards Unit ‘compelled interview’ of Detective Grus.

Many in the courtroom were moved to hear Detective Grus describe why she initiated the investigation into the cluster of Sudden Infant Deaths. She told the Professional Standards Sergeant Jason Arbuthnot that other officers in her unit were disinterested about a spike in infant deaths.

Detective Grus also told the interviewer that she personally met with and informed Chief of Police Peter Sloly of the spike in infant deaths – and of her investigations that later became the subject of her charge!

Detective Grus was in tears as she said:

“There’s something alarming going on. We had double, a huge spike in baby deaths, and I said “What are we gonna do about it?” Because I was getting that people were dismissive about it. (They said) “Oh well, that sucks.”

I’m not okay with babies dying and not getting any answers.

I need a tissue.”

Later in the recording, Detective Grus explained that two of the nine Sudden Infant Deaths were highly unusual, yet her fellow officers “fluffed it away”…

“These two cases struck a bell suddenly that day because both those babies were sent home healthy. Both those mothers picked them up to feed them, and both of those babies collapsed and went limp in the mother’s arms.

It still gives me chills because to leave it, to just fluff it away.

As a police officer, that’s not enough. I’m a police officer; I’m there to solve and help solve if somebody dies. Especially an innocent little baby.”

Sean Hartman just wanted to play hockey. He took the jab and died.

More from various times during the interview…

“With the way that the babies expired in their mama’s arms. Which I find crazy. It’s a drastic change from what we’ve always known as SIDS.”

I’m not comfortable with just closing it as “Oh well. Too bad, so sad; it’s unexplained.”

“I don’t want more babies to die. Whether it’s vaccine-related or not, I want to try to find out why these little babies died.”

January 11 (2022) it struck a chord. I found out that two babies collapsed in their mother’s arms. One had an enlarged heart. The next day I found out that Sean Hartman died, just dropped dead with an enlarged heart.“

Detective Grus met with Chief Sloly and told him about the spike in Sudden Infant Deaths

“I told the chief there had been a significant increase – double or triple numbers on baby deaths in 2021.”

A Request of Parents Whose Babies Died Suddenly

Some of you have already reached out to me – a few using only their first names.

I would appreciate hearing from more of you as I research a further article in my series about Detective Helen Grus.

I want to know your stories, your experiences with medical personnel and police officers – and whether you believe that Detective Grus was correct to investigate the cluster of infant deaths as she did.

You have my promise that I will never reveal your name to anyone without your explicit written permission. I’m fine if you wish to remain anonymous and use a g-mail or some other method of contacting me.

My email is: [email protected]

My twitter for direct messages is: @donaldbestca

I can also speak with you on Telegram or Signal.

Thank you,

Donald Best

Worldwide Interest in Ottawa Police Disciplinary Trial

Ottawa Police Detective Helen Grus is charged under the Police Services Act with ‘Discreditable Conduct’ for allegedly conducting “unauthorized” investigations into nine Sudden Infant Deaths where she sought to know the vaccine status of the mothers in January 2022.

The internal trial is scheduled for five days August 14-18, 2023.

Although Ottawa Police recently released some of the legal documents filed in the case, the organization is still refusing to release motions and decisions since April 26, 2023.

As previously reported here, the Ottawa Police for many months concealed the judge’s decisions and lawyers’ motions – even going so far as to deceitfully inform the public and the press in April that the judge had not made a decision about a December 29, 2022 Disclosure Motion – when the truth was the judge delivered his decision on January 31, 2023.

This lack of transparency continues with much of the case still being conducted in secret.

Further, the Ottawa Police ignored numerous requests from the public and media to stream the upcoming trial over the internet as was done for a few appearances in the Fall of 2022.

In a recent commentary, legendary NYPD Detective and Medal of Honor Recipient Frank Serpico slammed the Ottawa Police cover-up in the Grus case, saying “Incompetence or criminality will go to any length not to be exposed even at the cost of innocent infant lives.”

Five Court Documents Available Here

I redacted these documents to remove Identity Information, signatures, and email addresses. Use ‘control’ or right click to open these documents in a new browser tab for downloading…

20221229 Exhibit #8 Motion regarding Disclosure_Redacted

20230112 Exhibit #9 Respondent’s Factum – Response to applicant’s request for disclosure_Redacted

20230131 Exhibit #11 Ruling on Motion for Disclosure_Redacted

20230417 Exhibit #13 Consolidated Motion_Redacted

20230426 Exhibit #14 Respondent Ottawa Police Service Factum_Redacted

Obviously the April 17, 2023 Motion would have produced a decision by the judge, but the Ottawa Police are withholding this and any other documents filed since April 26, 2023.

Summary of Each Document

20221229 Exhibit #8 Motion regarding Disclosure_Redacted.pdf

• Defense motion requesting disclosure from the prosecution.
• Para 12 recounts that Detective Grus requested the OPS Professional Standards Unit to investigate who leaked the confidential information to CBC Journalist Shaamini Yogaretnam. OPS REFUSED TO INVESTIGATE THIS CRIMINAL OFFENSE!
• Para 14 recounts that the OPS Sgt. Arbuthnot told the Detective Grus that ‘the two CBC articles that were published generated public attention and that as a result of the Applicant’s alleged actions, OPS’ s reputation was brought into disrepute.”
• Para 15 – Professional Standards found that Grus did nothing wrong in looking at the Sudden Infant Death reports. HOWEVER – the Professional Standards Unit found she did wrong by conducting “an unsanctioned quality control project of SACA infant death investigations.” (Oh really! And what did Grus find? That the investigations were flawed, biased, negligent.)
• Para 30 lists the initial disclosure to Grus. What follows are paragraphs detailing subsequent OPS disclosures and further requests by Grus’s lawyer – including the autopsy records of the deceased infants.
• Para 42 reveals an extensive list of defense requests for disclosure items. The totality of the requests indicate that Grus’s legal team will be conducting a detailed and strong defense.
• Para 42-13 reveals that Ottawa Police Wiretapped Detective Grus and her family. (See BREAKING HERE: Ottawa Police Wiretapped ‘Sudden Infant Deaths’ Detective Helen Grus – And Her Family)

20230112 Exhibit #9 Respondent’s Factum – Response to applicant’s request for disclosure_Redacted.pdf

(Continuing)

Above is Work in Progress – Check back in a few hours for an update.

NOTE: I’ve published this article unfinished so readers can download the documents ASAP and start reading. If you find something noteworthy, please leave a comment. (Comments sometimes take a few hours to appear so please be patient.)

Ottawa Police Service stop broadcasting the trial of Detective Helen Grus – despite (or perhaps because of) intense public interest in Canada and worldwide.

Since September 2022, every appearance by Detective Grus before the Internal Trials Officer has been publicly broadcast on the Internet via MicroSoft Teams – but Ottawa Police have now arbitrarily decided to prevent citizens and journalists outside Ottawa from witnessing the upcoming April 28, 2023 motions hearing online.

Only local Ottawa journalists will have first-hand access to the Grus trial. This includes the same agenda-driven news media that first published confidential information criminally provided to them by rogue Ottawa Police officers.

The mainstream media has covered the Grus case extensively: CBC, Global News, CTV, Globe & Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, Sun Newspapers, Epoch Times, Western Standard, Rebel News and more. The Grus case is also heavily covered and discussed on social media.

My writings and interviews alone about the Grus case have been accessed over one million times since August 2022 from all over Canada and the world.

Ottawa Police stop Internet Broadcasting of the Grus trial – despite continuing to broadcast other internal cases.

So much for the declaration by famed New York Police Detective Frank Serpico that the public broadcasting of the Detective Grus Internal Hearing was a “breakthrough in Police transparency.”

Concealing a Weak, Politically-Motivated Case from the Public

Detective Grus faces a single internal Police Services Act charge of ‘Discreditable Conduct’ for allegedly conducting “unauthorized” investigations into nine Sudden Infant Deaths – where she sought to know the vaccine status of the mothers.

Ottawa Police launched an internal investigation and suspended Detective Grus in early February 2022. Grus was formally charged on July 26, 2022, and the case has been before the internal Trials Officer on several dates since then.

“The actions of the Ottawa Police Service in ceasing to broadcast the Grus trial, and in withholding certain legal documents from journalists, make it obvious that OPS wishes to limit public attention and control the news media reporting as best as it can.”

As I reported on March 7, 2023, it is evident from watching the previous Grus appearances before the court that the Charge Against Ottawa Police Detective Helen Grus is Falling Apart.

Enough medical evidence exists to justify Detective Grus’ professional investigative concerns that there is a potential connection between the mRNA Covid ‘vaccine’ status of the mothers and the sudden deaths of the nine infants.

Detective Grus therefore acted diligently and responsibly in her investigations. Her professionalism should have been admired and rewarded – yet for reasons that need to be explained by the Ottawa Police, Grus was suspended, charged with ‘Discreditable Conduct’, and notified that she would be fired if found guilty.

Rogue Ottawa Police Officers criminally provided confidential information to CBC Journalist Shaamini Yogaretnam

Yogaretnam then actively interfered with the ongoing internal investigation.

It is entirely relevant to the charge against Detective Grus that shortly after she was suspended in early February, 2022 – multiple rogue Ottawa Police officers criminally provided confidential information about the ongoing investigation to CBC journalist Shaamini Yogaretnam.

Yogaretnam broke the story in written articles and broadcasts on March 28, 2022 after actively interfering with the internal police investigation.

Before publishing the information provided by rogue police officers, the CBC presented an ultimatum to the Ottawa Police Service on a Thursday afternoon – that the police had only 24 hours to respond before CBC broke the story.

The ultimatum also contained the inherent threat that if the police hadn’t yet contacted the parents of the nine SIDS babies – the parents would be notified of the investigation by the CBC article.

With that, the CBC effectively became the director of the internal investigation – forcing the police to throw out their investigative plan and dance to the CBC’s tune.

According to news articles, the ultimatum caused Ottawa Police to hurriedly contact the involved parents late on a Friday – totally upsetting the investigative plan that was undoubtedly in place.

CBC Reporter Shaamini Yogaretnam

The involved parents were potential witnesses who had not yet been contacted or interviewed by the Professional Standards Unit. (Of course they hadn’t yet been interviewed. Investigators would still have been collecting background information so their witness interviews would be grounded in knowledge.)

Yogaretnam and CBC knew that publishing confidential information would cause chaos with the internal investigation that was still in an early stage – but they made the ultimatum and published anyway.

The rogue Ottawa Police officers who illegally provided the confidential information to Yogaretnam undoubtedly knew and intended that their actions would cause chaos in the internal investigation. (The Criminal Code Section 129 calls that ‘Obstruct Police’)

Ottawa Police Concealing Legal Motions and Judge’s Decisions From Public and Journalists

In my February 5, 2023 article Ottawa Police Conceal Legal Motions in Detective Grus Case – Sudden Infant Deaths, I reported that Ottawa Police refuse to provide journalists with the written legal motions filed in the trial of Detective Helen Grus.

From the article:

“Most legal motions filed in real Canadian courts are public – to ensure transparency and promote public confidence in the legal process.

In the Grus case, Ottawa Police have chosen to arbitrarily and without explanation, conceal filed legal motions from the public and the news media.

Ottawa Police prosecutors know that they can get away with hiding legal motions from the public because it would take a legal motion by interested news media to force transparency – which would be prohibitively expensive.”

Ottawa Police Conceal Judge’s Motion Decision from Public – and lie about it.

For over two months, multiple Ottawa Police personnel intentionally deceived and outright lied to me in writing (and lied to the public on the OPS website) about Trial Officer Chris Renwick’s decision concerning the December 29, 2022 defense motion in the Grus case.

“As I realized that multiple Ottawa Police personnel were lying to me in writing, and coordinating this with each other – I thought I would be upset, angered, or even outraged. Instead, I feel a tremendous sadness to learn that the very police personnel in charge of maintaining professional standards and officially communicating to journalists and the public – cannot be trusted to tell the truth.”

At the last hearing on December 6, 2022, Canadians learned that Grus’s defense lawyer Bath-Sheba Van den Berg was to file a written motion by December 29, 2022 to demand additional disclosure. The prosecution would then reply in writing.

Trials Officer (retired) Superintendent Chris Renwick stated he would issue a decision about the disclosure motion early in January.

Trial Officer’s stated deadline posted on Ottawa Police website in Dec 2022

The Ottawa Police ‘Disciplinary Hearings and Decisions’ webpage was immediately updated, stating:

“Constable Helen Grus. Ruling on motion to be delivered first week of January.”

When the decision did not appear in January, I had a series of emails in February with various police officers at both the Ottawa Police Media Relations and the Professional Standards Unit – wherein I was assured that:

1/ Trials Officer Superintendent Renwick had not yet made a decision concerning the December 29, 2022 Disclosure Motion by Defense lawyer Bath-Sheba van den Berg, and…

2/ When the Trials Officer made his decision, it would be posted online for the public and journalists.

When February came and went with no decision by the Trials Officer, the Ottawa Police then changed their ‘Disciplinary Hearings and Decisions’ webpage to state:

“Constable Helen Grus. Ruling on motion to be delivered in March.”

Ottawa Police posted this lie online and deceived the public.

On March 7, 2023, I reported “The Internal Trials Officer is two months overdue with his Evidence Disclosure Decision.”

Insp. Hugh O’Toole

On April 4, 2023 I had a series of emails with both OPS Professional Standards and Media Relations personnel wherein I was again informed that the Trials Officer had not yet made a decision regarding the December 29, 2022 defense motion.

Inspector Hugh O’Toole is the officer in charge of the Ottawa Police Professional Standards Unit.

During the series of emails, personnel from the Professional Standards Unit updated the ‘Disciplinary Hearings and Decisions’ webpage to state:

“Constable Helen Grus. April 28, 2023 at 9.30, Room 205 19 Fairmont”

Later in the thread, several OPS emails contain deceptive language and a refusal to directly answer this request:

“It is now April and no decision has been posted in the Detective Grus case.

If the decision has been made, please send it to me and / or post online as earlier promised.

If the decision has not been made, please advise the reason for the three-month delay.”

Ottawa Police Manipulating News Media Coverage Through Coordinated Deceit

Trials Officer Supt Chris Renwick

If Trials Officer Chris Renwick made his awaited ‘January’ decision before April 4, 2023, it means that multiple Ottawa Police personnel from both Professional Standards and Media Relations colluded as a group, and coordinated their communications – to lie to me, and to deceive and manipulate both the news media and the public.

The deceptive language in the April 4th emails, plus my communications record with Ottawa Police personnel cause me to strongly believe – to know – that the OPS lied to the public and to me.

I have no doubt that Trials Officer Chris Renwick already delivered his ‘January’ decision, but the Ottawa Police are lying about it in emails and on the OPS website – to deceive both the public and journalists.

None of this is said lightly. I am publicly accusing multiple Ottawa Police personnel of misconduct.

As I realized that multiple Ottawa Police personnel were lying to me in writing, and coordinating this with each other – I thought I would be upset, angered, or even outraged. Instead, I feel a tremendous sadness to learn that the very police personnel in charge of maintaining professional standards and officially communicating to journalists and the public – cannot be trusted to tell the truth.

Donald Best