An Ottawa police officer has pleaded guilty to a charge of discreditable conduct for donating $55 to the Freedom Convoy in February.
Const. Kristina Neilson donated to the Ottawa convoy through the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe on Jan. 23. The money was automatically refunded to her on Feb. 5 after GoFundMe stopped accepting donations for the convoy, citing a violation of its service terms.
The day her money was refunded, Neilson donated $55 to the convoy through another platform called GiveSendGo. This donation was also automatically refunded on March 25 after the Ontario government successfully petitioned a court to freeze the fundraiser.
Neilson cooperated with questioning during the Oct. 6 public sentencing hearing and acknowledged she made the donations.
During the hearing, prosecution lawyer Angela Stewart said Neilson’s conduct “fell well below the reasonable expectation that the public has of the service and its officers.”
Despite the small amount of Neilson’s donation, Stewart called Neilson’s actions “serious misconduct” and said the penalty “has to be serious enough, as well, to deter Constable Neilson as well as any other officers from ever acting in a similar manner.”
Neilson’s representative at the hearing, Sgt. Pat Laflamme, noted that she has served as an Ottawa police officer since 2012 and has received “excellent performance reviews” both internally and through public letters of commendation.
The prosecution also noted that Neilson’s penalty will be mitigated because of her early guilty plea, cooperation with the investigation, and the fact that she’s never been previously disciplined in her nine years with the OPS.
“There’s no indication that there have ever been issues surrounding her performance and no reason to believe in this case that any actions like this or any sort of issues are going to reoccur,” said Stewart.
Neilson’s penalty will most likely be a forfeiture of hours, according to the prosecution, who said that similar disciplinary cases in the past have ended as such.
