Woman wants 'transparency' from OPP over fatal 2020 crash

Partner of victim wants to know why no disciplinary hearing held for officer

- WENDY GILLIS

Courtney D'Arthenay wants Ontario Superior Court judges to order a disciplinary hearing for the OPP officer.

When a letter landed in Courtney D'Arthenay's mailbox last year stating her spouse's death at the hands of a speeding OPP officer was not "serious" police misconduct, her "tragedy was compounded by an injustice," the woman's lawyer told an Ontario court Tuesday - one that must be rectified by increased accountability for the cop.

The Ottawa Valley woman's lawyer asked a panel of Ontario Superior Court judges to overturn an "unexplained, unjustified and unreasonable decision" by the OPP last year to not hold a disciplinary hearing against Const. Jaimee McBain -despite two oversight bodies concluding she'd fatally struck D'Arthenay's partner, Tyler Dorzyk, while speeding and driving unsafely down a rainy, dark highway.

Adding insult to injury, D'Arthenay's lawyer Justin Safayeni told the court: The OPP gave no explanation for failing to charge McBain with professional misconduct. In the letter to D'Arthenay, the service simply stated they'd concluded the officer's misconduct was "not of a serious nature."

"We have no basis at all for the decision. There is no justification, transparency or intelligible explanation," said Safayeni, inside an Oshawa court filled with D'Arthenay's supporters.

"Instead, what we have is a black box."

In a case he hopes sends "a strong message" to Ontario police services that they must be transparent about discipline decisions, Safayeni is asking the court to order the OPP to provide reasons for its decision, and to order a disciplinary hearing into McBain's misconduct.