Ottawa Police Settle Lawsuit Against Detective Who Probed Vaccine Status of Deceased Baby’s Mother

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

The Ottawa Police Services Board has settled a civil lawsuit against an officer accused of invading the privacy of a family grieving the loss of an infant by trying to find out if the baby’s mother had been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Detective Helen Grus was accused of accessing the child’s records for no investigative purpose.

The lawyer for the family, Lawrence Greenspon, said the case was settled outside of court.

“We made a claim, which they just recently settled with us without the necessity of going to a Statement of Claim or starting a formal civil action,” he told The Epoch Times.

Ms. Grus is a detective with the Ottawa Police Service’s (OPS) sexual assault and child abuse unit, which is mandated to investigate child abuse and neglect.

Mr. Greenspon said the family wanted to remain anonymous.

Details of the settlement have not been released.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Ottawa Police Service but did not immediately hear back.

Ms. Grus still faces disciplinary proceedings that are expected to resume on Jan. 8, 2024.

She has been accused of unauthorized accessing of information for nine infants for a “self-initiated” and “unauthorized project.”

The notice of disciplinary hearing alleges that Ms. Grus also contacted the father of one of the families to ask about the mother’s vaccination status.

Ms. Grus was put on suspension with pay in February 2022. She was ordered back to work in October 2022.

Ms. Grus’s lawyer has argued that since her mandate is to investigate all sudden and unexpected child deaths, it is within the expectations of her role to ask about the parent’s medical history, which includes vaccination status.

“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,” Ms. Grus’s lawyer Bath-Sheba van den Berg said during one of her disciplinary hearing sessions in April.

Ms. Van den Berg also said that there appeared to have been an “apprehension of bias” in the police force’s decision to pursue the charge of discreditable conduct against Ms. Grus. “It appears that some colleagues were in disagreement and didn’t like Detective Grus’ views, and this really does taint the investigation process and the decision to charge Grus with discreditable conduct,” she said.

The Epoch Times reached out to Ms. Van den Berg but didn’t immediately hear back.

The detective had previously been suspended without pay in January 2022 after she refused to disclose her COVID-19 vaccination status. The Ottawa Police Service had mandated that all employees be vaccinated by Jan. 31.

Ms. Grus is also reported to have sent an email to co-workers expressing concern over the lockdowns, vaccine safety, and the silencing of medical professionals.

“This past year and a half has been challenging for everyone,” Ms. Grus wrote. “Watching news releases each day I fell back on my investigative skills directing me to seek out the source information in attempts to corroborate the doom and gloom of each day’s news reports on COVID-19 deaths, cases, prevention, transmission etc.”

“I do have serious concerns with the worldwide silencing of doctors, virologists, biologists, pharmacists, psychologists etc.”

Andrew Chen and Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.