The Ontario Civilian Police Commission has released its decision involving Sergeant Gary Lavoie and the Greater Sudbury Police Service. Lavoie had been suspended from duty on September 7, 2011 on allegations of a number of breaches of Code of Conduct under the Ontario Police Services Act.
In all, thirty-six charges related to Discreditable Conduct, Neglect of Duty, Breach of Confidence and Insubordination were filed. 31 counts of discreditable conduct for conducting unauthorized police checks, 3 counts of breach of confidence for giving information from those checks to others, 1 count of neglect of duties and one count of insubordination for not keeping proper notes of his duies and disobeying an order from a superior to gather those notebooks and submit them to central storage.
In his decision on findings stemming from the charges rendered on July 12, 2013, Hearing Officer Markiewich found Lavoie guilty on all thirty-six counts as charged. In his decision on penalty dated November 7, 2013 a penalty of immediate dismissal from the Service was imposed. Sergeant Lavoie appealed the decision asking that the Commission quash or stay all findings against him and that the penalty be revoked, quashed or in the alternative reduced.
In its decision issued November 20, 2014, the OCPC dismissed the appeal in its entirety and upheld the decision for termination as rendered by Hearing Officer Markiewich.
Chief Pedersen stated that he is “always disappointed to learn of the shortcomings of those charged with upholding the law but that I am pleased that justice has ultimately been served. This officer had breached policy and the system has held him squarely accountable for his actions. Discipline as imposed under the Police Services Act seeks to ensure procedural fairness providing an open and transparent look at all of the evidence. In the end, the Commission upheld the decision that Mr. Lavoie could no longer serve as a police officer and termination of his employment was the only justified outcome”.
Mr. Lavoie had served as an officer for close to thirty years prior to his suspension.