Ottawa Detective Disciplined for Probing COVID Vaccine Link to Infant Deaths Discussed Spike in Deaths With Chief, Hearing Told

A close-up of an Ottawa Police officer’s badge in Ottawa on April 28, 2022. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

OTTAWA—An audio recording played at the pre-trial for Helen Grus—an Ottawa Police Service (OPS) detective being charged with disorderly conduct for investigating the vaccination status of the mothers of deceased infants—showed she sent two emails to then-Police Chief Peter Sloly to discuss a spike in infant deaths and a number of police officers with COVID-19 vaccine-related heart problems.

“Overall, my intention, ... depending on what I found and the information I collected online for further investigation, was to present a case package to OPS, to SACA [sexual assault and child abuse] team, and say ’there’s something alarming going on, we had dealt with a huge spike in baby deaths, and what are we going to do about it?'” Ms. Grus told Sergeant Jason Arbuthnot during the investigation conducted by the Professional Standards Unit.

“Because the gist I was getting was that people were dismissive about it—'Oh well, it sucks’—and I’m not OK with babies dying and not getting any answers.”

Ms. Grus, a detective with the OPS sexual assault and child abuse unit investigating child abuse and neglect, faces a charge of discreditable conduct for conducting an “unauthorized project” between June 2020 and January 2022 by probing into the sudden deaths of nine infants. Ms. Grus is alleged to have accessed Ottawa police files and then contacted the coroner’s office to learn the COVID-19 vaccination status of the parents, as she believed there could be an association between the two.

On Jan. 30, 2022, Ms. Grus 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. Ms. Grus was suspended without pay in February 2022, but was ordered to return to work with restrictions during an Oct. 11, 2022, OPS internal hearing.

Audio Recording

In the audio recording, which was played on Aug. 14 during the pre-trial hearing, Ms. Grus claimed she had received an email on Sept 9, 2021, from her supervisor in the Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit telling her to stop discussing anything pandemic or COVID-19 vaccine-related in the office. “Basically, ‘Helen, shut up about it, don’t talk about it,’” she said.

A September 2021 email Ms. Grus sent to her colleagues, obtained by independent journalist and former detective with the Toronto police Donald Best, showed she was concerned with harms associated with public health restrictions and COVID-19 vaccines.

But later on, Ms. Grus sent two emails to OPS Chief Sloly on Dec. 13, 2021, and Jan. 15, 2022, to discuss the rise in sudden infant deaths and what would happen to officers that refused to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination, which was at that time a requirement to work with the OPS.

Ms. Grus said she also told Mr. Sloly about the eight officers she‘d heard from who had heart issues following their COVID-19 vaccination. “I wanted to help find them. ... Some were talking to doctors, others weren’t. They were just scared. Someone said, ’I thought I was going to die when my heart started pounding,'” she said.

Mr. Sloly resigned as the police chief on Feb. 15, 2022, after heavy criticism over his handling of the Freedom Convoy, in which truckers paralyzed Ottawa’s downtown core in protest of COVID-19 vaccine border mandates and other public health restrictions.

At the time of her suspension in February 2022, Ms. Grus was pulling together evidence for a report to Mr. Sloly and other senior leaders to recommend changes to the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome questionnaire and the SACA unit’s investigation methodology, which she said she found to be substandard.