Ottawa officer fights back at disciplinary hearing
Confrontation with trespassing teen dirt bikers
OTTAWA • Ottawa police Const. Pierre Fournier who was found guilty of discreditable conduct for confronting a group of dirt-biking teenagers in 2021 arrived to a roomful of neighbours, area farmers and fellow officers all lending their support to the embattled officer facing a disciplinary hearing.
Fournier filed 21 character-reference letters as the tribunal reconvened Thursday, with many supporters citing the “longstanding issue” of the freewheeling teenagers trespassing on private property, speeding through hazardous gravel pits and damaging crops despite years of regular complaints to police.
The trouble began for Fournier, who was off-duty and on medical leave on April 24, 2021, when he and his identical twin brother, Guy Fournier, spotted a group of 15- and 16-year-olds riding dirt bikes at a local gravel pit.
Fournier was frustrated by the “recurring disrespectful and undisciplined actions of the youths and attitudes of the parents who enabled the activity,” according to a summary of the case from the presiding officer, retired superintendent Chris Renwick.
The group of teens rode away, with some flipping Fournier the finger, while he restrained one remaining biker and told him: “You’re not going anywhere.”
The teens accused Fournier of using profanity and “mocking words” as the group returned to the scene, and Fournier only identified himself as a police officer once the verbal altercation escalated.
Guy Fournier retrieved Pierre Fournier’s badge from his truck, but the off-duty officer instructed his brother not to show it to the teens.
Police were eventually called as the altercation turned physical, though Renwick acknowledged there were inconsistencies about whether the fight involved pushing and shoving or punches.
Renwick ruled the interaction violated the teenager’s Charter rights as he found Fournier guilty of discreditable conduct in January.
In an interview before Thursday’s hearing, Fournier denied initiating physical contact with the 15-year-old and claimed he grabbed the handle bars of the dirt bike and held the teen there until the group returned.
Fournier said it was his twin brother who made physical contact by “pulling the kid off me.”
Guy Fournier corroborated that account as he also appeared at Thursday’s hearing, making the trek from Quebec City, where he works as a business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
“I wanted to come and see the stars of the s--t show,” Guy Fournier said at the outset of the hearing, though his comment was struck from the record by Renwick.
Both brothers were initially charged by Ottawa police with assault and mischief, though criminal charges were withdrawn as the Ottawa Crown Attorney’s office deemed it was not in the public interest to pursue convictions.
The identities of the teenagers are shielded by a publication ban, which was opposed by Fournier. He also objected to the teenagers appearing virtually by Zoom at the tribunal rather than testifying in person.
“These kids have been treated with kid gloves ever since this thing started,” Fournier said in an interview last week.
Thursday’s hearing turned feisty at times as Renwick cautioned Fournier against making “personal attacks” on the prosecution and members of the Ottawa Police Service, with Fournier lobbing unspecified accusations of misconduct against unnamed fellow officers.
“There are people in this room who have done worse things,” Fournier said near the conclusion of his arguments on Thursday. “And they know who they are.”
Prosecutor Vanessa Stewart called for a penalty that included a 40-day deduction in pay, saying Fournier’s conduct “fell well short of expectations” during the 2021 incident that “tarnished the reputation of Const. Fournier and the Ottawa Police Service.”
Fournier took issue with the prosecutor, who erroneously added a penalty of 15 hours’ pay, to be served concurrently, for the charge of insubordination. Fournier was not convicted of that charge, and Stewart quickly withdrew the suggested penalty.
The prosecutor had, at first, suggested Fournier should be docked 40 hours’ pay — the equivalent of five days — but then told the tribunal she had misspoken and was actually seeking 40 days.
Fournier claimed, in both an interview and during Thursday’s hearing, that the prosecution had previously offered to settle his disciplinary case if he forfeited 18 hours’ pay and took a training course on the expectations of off-duty and on-duty officers. Fournier declined that offer, then declined a later settlement offer that called for 12 hours’ pay and counselling.
“How do we get from 18 hours (forfeiture) to 40 days?” Fournier exclaimed.
Renwick said he would require several weeks to decide on the penalty.
Fournier, who represented himself at the tribunal and made his arguments Thursday with assistance from fellow Const. Cedric Nizam, called for zero pay deductions and demanded letters of apology from the prosecutor and another senior officer, while also requesting a face-to-face meeting with Chief Eric Stubbs to explain his side of the story.
“The big problem is Ottawa police have never done their job with these kids, and this has been an ongoing (complaint) if you talk to anybody in the neighbourhood,” said Fournier, who has been an OPS officer for more than 20 years.
Fournier read several letters of support into the record on Thursday, including one from Tyler Chapman, owner of Osgoode Sand and Gravel, a gravel pit adjacent to the property where the incident occurred.
“We have made regular complaints about dirt bikers to the police and our local councillors for at least a decade on this property with no resolution,” Chapman wrote.
The frequency of trespassing dirt bikers “skyrocketed” during Covid-related lockdowns, Chapman wrote, with riders “cutting through our property on a daily basis … The crop damage was extensive.”
Chapman said he was “stunned” to learn Fournier, who he knows as a friend and neighbour, was being charged.
If police had responded to prior complaints, Chapman wrote, “Pierre would never have been in this situation. And publicly disgracing Pierre will do nothing but encourage these dirt bikers to trespass and damage my crops … They know that nothing will happen to them.”
WE HAVE MADE REGULAR COMPLAINTS ABOUT DIRT BIKERS.