Public Deceived and Betrayed.
Open Court Principle and Transparency Dead
100+ Public and Journalists expected to show for tiny 15-seat Kanata boardroom
Today @OttawaPolice announced that there will be NO INTERNET BROADCAST of the Detective Helen Grus Disciplinary Hearing starting Monday, May 27, 2024.
Ottawa Police have for the last two months deceived the public with false information that the hearing would be moved to a larger facility, and be publicly broadcast to ensure transparency of the trial.
Then they cancelled the large Ottawa venue and moved the hearing back to the tiny boardroom – dangling the promise that the proceedings would be broadcast – especially as Detective Grus is expected to testify in her own defense on Monday.
Now on the Friday before the Monday trial we learn the truth: 15 seats, no public broadcast, 100+ public and journalists wanting the 15 available seats in the tiny boardroom.
OPS led everybody on – deceived us for two months before announcing early this morning that there would be no broadcast.
No doubt Ottawa Police saved the ‘no broadcast’ announcement to the Friday before the trial in hopes that the public and journalists would not make plans to personally attend the hearing in Kanata.
The last hearing day in March 2024 saw an overflow crowd of about 70 people. Ottawa Police will not reserve a section for journalists, so members of the public gave up their seats to allow the journalists to cover the event.
Although the crowd was peaceful and respectful, Ottawa Police threatened to tow cars from the public parking spaces at the station. Further, the spectators were warned not to park at the nearby Canadian Tire Centre or they would be towed.
This reporter has learned that Ottawa Police called the Canadian Tire Centre and effectively communicated to management that the police did not want members of the public to park at the centre! Thus police announced to the crowd that CTC parking was prohibited.
In context, the past two months can be seen as an Ottawa Police strategy to limit public access and transparency to this most contentious case and hearing.
Ottawa Police Detective Helen Grus is charged with ‘Discreditable Conduct’ under the Ontario Police Services Act for conducting “unauthorized” investigations into the sudden deaths of nine infants. The next Hearing is on Monday, May 27, 2024.
Grus was investigating any potential connection between the vaccination status of the mothers and the sudden deaths of breastfeeding babies. Ottawa Police shut down her investigation, ordered her to stop, and charged her with an internal disciplinary charge.
My independent journalism revealed that Public Health Agency of Canada personnel sought to influence the Ottawa Police investigation of Detective Grus as early as March 2022, and even continuing after she was charged in July of 2022.
Full background and all my articles can be found at my website: donaldbest.ca/detective-grus
