KENORA -- No charges will be laid by the Special Investigations Unit following an incident between a 40-year-old man and an Ontario Provincial Police Office.
In the late evening of Oct. 12, 2021, officers arrested the man at a home in Kenora in connection with an assault.
According to SIU, police were en route to the detachment, while in the cruiser, the man threatened the officers with violence. Once at the parking garage, the man exited the rear passenger door of the cruiser, walked towards one of the officers and spat on his face.
Other officers immediately intervened and physically engaged the man.
The incident report reads, “with the Complainant on the floor in a seated position, his right leg crossed in front of him and his left leg extended out, the officer used his hands to keep the Complainant’s head down. As the Complainant struggled to lift his head, the officer delivered a right-knee strike into the right side of the Complainant’s body. The officer then moved to the left side of the Complainant’s body and delivered another knee strike to the upper body. Following the last of these strikes, the Complainant was rolled onto his right side, where the first officer continued to control his head.”
Following a further struggle, with the assistance of another officer who had returned to the parking garage, officers dragged the Complainant a short distance towards the parking garage and through the pedestrian door.
Once through the door, the Complainant was placed into a cell.
When the man complained of rib pain the following morning, he was taken to the Lake of the Woods District Hospital where he was diagnosed with fractures of a left and right-sided rib.
It was reported that the Kenora man claimed to have COVID-19 after spitting on the police officer. However, there is no record of the accuracy of the man’s claim found to be false in the incident report.
In a post-pandemic society, spitting in a person’s face is disgusting and a sign of assault.
Nevertheless, the officer’s attack on the man was a justified use of force to bring him under control to prevent a further assault.
After an investigation, the Special Investigation Unit ruled that “there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the SO committed a criminal offence in connection with the Complainant’s injuries.”
The report also cites, “Under section 25(1) of the Criminal Code, police officers are immune from criminal liability for force used in the course of their duties provided such force was reasonably necessary for the execution of an act that they were authorized or required to do by law.”
Although the actions of the police officer were subject to an investigation, Joseph Martino, Director of the Special Investigations Unit, concludes, “in the final analysis, while I accept that the Complainant’s fractures were the result of the force used by the SO, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that they were attributable to unlawful conduct on the part of the officer. Accordingly, there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges against the SO.”
