Ottawa police detective found guilty of discreditable conduct

An Ottawa police detective has been found guilty of discreditable conduct following a lengthy police disciplinary hearing into allegations she invaded the privacy of families by inappropriately accessing files of dead children and asking one parent about a vaccination status.

Const. Helen Grus, a detective with the Ottawa Police Service's sexual assault and child abuse unit, was accused of self-initiating "an unauthorized project" by accessing case files to which she wasn't assigned.

She also faced accusations that, in late January 2022, she interfered in an investigation by calling and speaking with the father of a deceased infant — inquiring about the COVID-19 vaccination status of the mother. ---More...

"The Matador Films documentary 'Silencing Detective Grus' provides a portal into the truth --- that my client, Detective Helen Grus, a police officer working in a unit responsible for investigating sudden unexpected deaths of infants, was prosecuted and persecuted because she had… pic.twitter.com/qYX8gAUEgN

— DonaldBest.CA * DO NOT COMPLY (@DonaldBestCA)November 27, 2025

"The Matador Films documentary 'Silencing Detective Grus' provides a portal into the truth --- that my client, Detective Helen Grus, a police officer working in a unit responsible for investigating sudden unexpected deaths of infants, was prosecuted and persecuted because she had legitimate public safety concerns that the reason for the tripling of baby deaths in Ottawa between 2021 and 2022 could be because of the COVID-19 vaccinations."

Lawyer Bath-Sheba van den Berg