Based on a chief’s complaint made June 13, two Greater Sudbury Police officers have been suspended with pay and the Ontario Provincial Police has taken over the investigation into the workplace death of a Sudbury teen on May 23.
On June 30, GSPS issued a news release saying an investigation has been launched into the actions of two off-duty GSPS officers on May 23, the day 19-year-old Roch Renaud died at his workplace in Lively.
Also today, OPP issued a release saying they were taking over the investigation into Renaud’s death after GSPS requested OPP assume responsibility for the investigation on June 18.
A “chief’s complaint” is an internal misconduct investigation initiated by the head of a police service, in this instance by Chief Sara Cunningham.
The inciting incident is a workplace death that occurred in Sudbury in late May.
Roch Renaud's death occurred in Sudbury on May 23 while he was at a workplace in Lively, said a news release from the Ministry of Labour last month.
"The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development was notified of a workplace fatality that occurred in Lively, Ontario,” said the email notice from the Ministry.
“It was reported that a worker was fatally injured while performing maintenance work. The ministry extends its sincere condolences to the family and colleagues of the worker.
“Following the notification, ministry inspectors attended the scene to investigate," said the ministry.
The labour ministry did not provide any details of what happened on May 23 that resulted in the teen’s death.
“A postmortem was conducted at the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service (OFPS), but a cause of death has not yet been determined,” OPP said in the June 30 news release.
The reason cited by GSPS for transferring the investigation to the OPP is that “it was determined that there is an institutional conflict of interest in accordance with Ontario Regulation 401/23 of the Community Safety and Policing Act (CSPA),” said the release.
No specific information was provided by GSPS as to the nature of the actions of its two officers that led to their suspension and the transferring of the investigation to the OPP. The names of the suspect officers have not been released.
"As the allegations have not yet been substantiated, their names will not be released at this time,” a GSPS news release states. “Both officers have been suspended with pay in accordance with section 209(1) of the Community Safety and Policing Act (CSPA).
“The Greater Sudbury Police Service takes all allegations of misconduct and/or criminality by our officers seriously and remains committed to a thorough, transparent investigative process that upholds accountability and maintains the public trust we are sworn to protect, the GSPS release continued.”