Ottawa Officer Found Guilty of Discreditable Conduct for Probing COVID Vaccine, Child Deaths Link
An Ottawa police officer accused by the force of using her position to probe the potential linkage between infant death cases and COVID-19 vaccinations has been found guilty of discreditable conduct under the Police Service Act.
Grus is alleged to have engaged in a “self-initiated” and “unauthorized” investigation between June 2020 and January 2022, accessing nine child or infant death cases and contacting the father of a deceased baby to ask about the mother’s COVID vaccination status, according to the decision document.
Grus, who pleaded not guilty, is a detective with the Ottawa Police Service’s sexual assault and child abuse unit, which is mandated to investigate child abuse and neglect.
Grus’s lawyer Bath-Sheba van den Berg argued during the hearings that Grus was not guilty of discreditable conduct because she “took reasonable steps” after noticing a “doubling or tripling” of infant deaths since the implementation of COVID vaccinations, and that she “saw it as her duty to investigative criminal negligence on the part of the government.”
Prosecutors argued Grus acted improperly by accessing infant death cases in which she had no investigative responsibility, while failing to record her involvement in the files. They also said she “interfered” in the investigation of an infant’s death by calling the parent without the lead investigator’s consent.
“I accept that an underlying motivation was a perceived increase of infant deaths since COVID-19 and the implementation of vaccinations, but I find that the evidence supports that she 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,” wrote hearing officer Renwick in his decision.
“Det. Grus allowed her personal beliefs and opinions to seep into her professional responsibilities and cloud her judgment and, ultimately, her professional conduct.”
The Epoch Times sought comment from Grus, but her lawyer said she would not discuss details, adding that Grus plans to appeal the ruling.
“This Decision runs contrary to the role of the Ottawa Police Service to preserve life and sends a strong message to Canadians that public officials are above the law,” van den Berg told The Epoch Times in a March 25 emailed statement.
She said a penalty hearing will be held next to determine the punishment for Grus. The March 25 decision did not specify a penalty.
The disciplinary process begun in August 2022 and concluded earlier this year after receiving closing submissions.
Hearing Officers’ Ruling
Hearing officer Renwick said Grus’ actions, particularly her call to the parent, had the “real potential” of bringing discredit to the reputation of the OPS by questioning, in her capacity as a criminal investigator, the ability of the health and medical community to protect children and determine a cause of death.
Renwick said the public would expect their police service to ensure their employees use a “bias free approach” when conducting investigations.
He said Grus’ actions, in their totality, “would be concerning to the community as it introduced an element of a personally held bias into serious investigations involving the death of infants.”
Renwick added that other elements that factored into his decision included suggestions of parental culpability for their vaccination decisions, as well as privacy issues.
He also said Grus misused her authority “to advance a position on a topic that was known to be divisive and controversial, despite a strongly held personal conviction that it was in the public’s interests as public COVID policy was putting infants at risk.”
Renwick said the evidence establishes that Grus was not assigned by her case manager to any of the nine infant death cases she accessed, nor did she formally assign herself to those cases, as would sometimes occur after hours or on the weekend.
He said Grus was not responsible for “conducting a criminal negligence investigation into the actions of public health officials in their managing and application of vaccine policy,” according to the document.
Renwick also said that while Grus brought up a possible link between infant deaths and vaccines with the chief and deputy chief in January 2022, her immediate supervisors and the colleagues leading the nine infant death cases were “uninformed and unaware” of her inquiries.
Renwick noted that, besides handwritten and preparatory notes for town hall meetings on mandatory vaccine policies, Grus did not record her involvement or findings. He said the officer did not create a case number for her inquiries, and did not produce documents such as investigative action reports or investigative chronologies.
“The conclusion drawn by this evidence is that Det. Grus made a deliberate effort to conceal her activities as she was aware that approval would be required, and it would be denied,” Renwick wrote.
Grus’s lawyer van den Berg had said previously that her client has had a “spotless record,” and that it was her duty to investigate the “unexplained death” of the children.
“There’s a duty to carry out an investigation diligently, especially when there’s an unexplained death. So when detective Grus is making a phone call as to her vaccination status, one would think but that is that’s within her duty,” she said previously.
“This is a case where we have an officer who was actually doing her job and is now faced with a discreditable conduct charge.”
Police On Guard for Thee, an advocacy group representing active duty and retired police officers, has previously expressed support for Grus, saying she was doing her job by investigating children’s deaths with potential links to the Covid-19 vaccines.
