Ottawa police board settles with family over invasion of privacy

The Ottawa Police Services Board has settled a civil claim involving an officer accused of invading a grieving family's privacy by inappropriately accessing a file related to the death of a child.

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.

• Detective tried to uncover vaccine status of dead children's parents, sources say
• Grieving mother not told nature of misconduct in probe of baby's death: lawyer

Separate from the civil claim, Grus was also accused of contacting a deceased baby's father on Jan. 30, 2022, to ask about the mother's COVID-19 vaccination status. She was suspended with pay a few days later, on Feb. 4.

The police disciplinary proceedings against her are ongoing and expected to resume in March.

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 was accused under the Police Services Act of improperly accessing records related to several 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.

In settling the civil claim, the police board did not admit any liability. The amount of the settlement hasn't been disclosed. In a letter sent to CBC News,  after the publication of this story, Grus denied "(breaching) the privacy of the family who won the settlement." Grus also said she did not contact the family involved in the civil claim.

In the media release, the anonymous family said 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."