The Ottawa Police Services Board settled a lawsuit December 7 involving an officer accused of invading a grieving family's privacy by trying to determine the vaccination status of a recently deceased infant's mother.Const. Helen Grus, a detective with the Ottawa Police Service's sexual assault and child abuse unit, was accused of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act for allegedly accessing records related to infant and child deaths for no investigative purpose. Grus is alleged to have contacted a deceased baby's father on January 30 2022, to ask about the mother's COVID-19 vaccination status. She was suspended with pay on February 4. Police disciplinary proceedings against her are expected to resume in January.In a media release Thursday, lawyer Lawrence Greenspon said a family wishing to remain anonymous has settled a civil claim against the police board in "relation to the invasion of privacy of their deceased child's records by Constable Helen Grus."Grus is accused under the Police Services Act of improperly accessing records related to nine infant deaths in Ottawa for the purpose of trying to find out if the parents of the deceased children had been vaccinated against COVID-19.Greenspon was a lawyer for Tamara Lich in her recent trial for involvement in the February 2022 Ottawa trucker convoy.The police board did not admit any liability in the settlement and the amount has not been disclosed.The anonymous family is quoted in the media release saying the "blatant disregard shown for the families involved shows just how far some people are willing to go to push their own agendas."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."Retired Toronto police officer and independent journalist Donald Best remains a staunch defender of Grus and says maintstream media's reporting on Grus’ case is full of “lies, defamation, [and] hypocrisy.”The settlement came just one day before a Divisional Court Judicial Review application filed by Grus’ defense lawyers was to be heard in court and Best alleged the timing was designed to put Grus in a bad light.According to Best, court evidence showed both that Grus did not access the vaccination records and that she had nothing to do with any public release of the investigation.In an online post, Best also protested the named media outlets had “defamed and attacked” Grus and failed to report that “the Ottawa Police illegally, abusively wiretapped Detective Grus and her family.”“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,” Best wrote.“[T]he 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 Grus from March 2022, and even after she was charged in July 2022.”Best, who attended the ten days of Grus’ hearings in October and November, told the Lavigne Show December 8 the case was one of the most important in the world. On Best’s website, he alleged a biased process.“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,” he wrote.“More shocking, however, was that Hearing Officer Superintendent (Retired) Chris Renwick knew and approved of the conflict of interest.”In a decision dated November 26, Renwick disallowed three medical experts, one police expert, and one legal expert from testifying for Grus.Dr. Eric Payne, Paediatric Neurology,Dr. James Thorp, Obstetrics and GynecologyDr. Gregory Chan, Family MedicineOttawa Police Staff Sergeant (retired) Peter DanylukLawyer Shawn Buckley.
