Ontario's Special Investigation's Unit (SIU) has determined there were no reasonable grounds to believe an officer committed an offence during an incident September 15 in Orillia.
The suspect officers arrested during the incident in question was diagnosed with a fractured finger the next day in hospital
INCIDENT
That morning a 6:50 a.m., Orillia OPP officers were dispatched to an area near Centennial Drive around Couchiching Park.
The caller reported seeing a man kneeling by the roadside beside a van that was parked in the middle of the road with its doors open and believed the man might be intoxicated.
The complainant was reportedly yelling, appeared intoxicated, and was making statements about people lacking respect. EMS confirmed they would meet officers at the location.
Police arrived at 7:02 a.m. and observed a grey Honda Odyssey blocking the roadway and a man kneeling in the grass nearby.
The vehicle's passenger doors and trunk were notably open and officers saw an open package of cannabis and a smoking device.
When questioned, the man denied consuming cannabis before driving, stating he had consumed it after the vehicle ran out of gas. He spoke incoherently, making nonsensical comments about the red sun.
At 7:08 a.m., paramedics arrived and repeatedly asked the man if he wanted to go to the hospital to no response. However, the man did say he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and was evicted two days earlier.
Officers decided to apprehend him under the Mental Health Act, but the man resisted by becoming physically rigid, then limp, and refusing to allow his hands to be handcuffed.
After a brief struggle, the officers managed to secure him in handcuffs behind the back and carried him to the cruiser. He was transported to hospital for psychiatric examination.
The OPP dispatcher subsequently notified the emergency department at OSMH that officers were transporting an uncooperative individual. The next day, while still at the hospital, the man was diagnosed with a fractured left finger.
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INVESTIGATION
One of two civilian witnesses were interviewed about the incident. Neither officer authorized viewing of their notes and both declined to be interviewed.
The SIU obtained the following materials:
- CADÂ Report
- Communications recordings
- General Occurrence Report
- Arrest Report
- Medical records from OSMH
SIU director Joseph Martino said that the officers had grounds to apprehend the man under section 17 of the Mental Health Act.
Mental Health Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. M.7, s.17
Where a police officer has reasonable and probable grounds to believe that a person is acting or has acted in a disorderly manner and has reasonable cause to believe that the person,
- (a) has threatened or attempted or is threatening or attempting to cause bodily harm to himself or herself;
- (b) has behaved or is behaving violently towards another person or has caused or is causing another person to fear bodily harm from him or her; or
- (c) has shown or is showing a lack of competence to care for himself or herself,
and in addition the police officer is of the opinion that the person is apparently suffering from mental disorder of a nature or quality that likely will result in,
- (d) serious bodily harm to the person;
- (e) serious bodily harm to another person; or
- (f) serious physical impairment of the person,
and that it would be dangerous to proceed under section 16, the police officer may take the person in custody to an appropriate place for examination by a physician.
He added that the evidence suggests he officers were within the right to use the force they did.
"At its highest, the evidence suggests that the officers wrestled to control the Complainant’s arms behind his back, perhaps delivering a strike to the hands," Martino said in the report. "This would not appear an excessive use of force in the context of someone resisting the officers’ efforts to secure his arms."
