THUNDER BAY – The province’s Special Investigations Unit found no reasonable grounds to believe a Thunder Bay Police Service officer committed a criminal offence after a 30-year-old man was seriously injured while fleeing police.
The man received an injury to his head and was transported to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, where he received four sutures and was diagnosed with a small skull fracture. The man was then released from hospital and returned to police custody. The SIU report said the investigation was delayed due to a number of factors, including “issues related to case complexity, workload pressures, and the receipt of a written statement and photograph from the subject official in April 2024."
“In R. v. Mann, 3 SCR 59, the Supreme Court of Canada made clear that investigative detentions are not permissible unless the police are vested with reasonable grounds to suspect that the detainee is implicated in a crime,” Martino's report said. “The subject official did so with a resort to force that I am unable to reasonably conclude was unjustified.
“Arguably, its intentional use to strike the complainant’s head would amount to an assault. And that is what is alleged happened to the complainant. The subject official, however, denies he intentionally struck the complainant in the head with the flashlight.