A retired Ottawa police sergeant has testified in the trial of Detective Helen Grus, contradicting the prosecution's claim that Grus conducted an unauthorized investigation into the COVID-19 vaccination status of mothers of deceased infants. The retired sergeant, Peter Danyluk, stated that it was normal for police officers to make queries on the records management system (RMS) for cases they were not the lead investigators of.
Danyluk's testimony suggested that accessing RMS inquiries for cases not assigned to an officer was a common daily activity at the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) and likely in police services worldwide. He shared an example of receiving a call from an Ontario Provincial Police officer who had consulted one of his information reports submitted while Danyluk was off-duty. The officer asked if they could use the information report in a case against an individual, and Danyluk saw no issue with it.
The trial against Detective Helen Grus involves allegations of discreditable conduct for conducting an unauthorized project between June 2020 and January 2022. Grus, a detective with the OPS sexual assault and child abuse unit, investigated the sudden deaths of nine infants and allegedly accessed Ottawa police files to learn the COVID-19 vaccination status of the parents. She believed there could be a connection between the deaths and the vaccines. Additionally, Grus reportedly contacted the father of a deceased infant to inquire about his wife's vaccination status without informing the lead detective.
The defense lawyers for Grus argued that searching through the RMS system did not constitute an unauthorized project because Grus had done so throughout her career at OPS. Danyluk's testimony supported this argument and reinforced the notion that accessing RMS inquiries for cases not assigned to an officer was a normal practice within the police service.
The defense also challenged the accusations that Grus failed to record her involvement or findings from the RMS inquiries in a file and interfered in another ongoing investigation. They claimed that the prosecution failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove these aspects throughout the months-long trial.
Danyluk, who had served in the OPS since 1999 and retired in January 2022, testified that Grus was skeptical of COVID-19 vaccines but remained reasonable in their conversations about the issue. He mentioned that she had identified an anomaly in the number of infant deaths in 2021 compared to the previous year and planned to conduct a fact-finding exercise.
Despite being suspended without pay from the OPS in February 2022, Grus was ordered to return to work with restrictions during an internal hearing held on October 11, 2022.
The trial of Detective Helen Grus continues as the defense presents evidence challenging the accusations against her. The testimony of retired police sergeant Peter Danyluk has shed light on the normalcy of accessing RMS inquiries for cases not assigned to an officer, providing a different perspective on Grus's actions. As the trial unfolds, it remains to be seen how the court will weigh this testimony and determine Grus's fate.
