Judges toss OPP decision on crash

Police service deemed fatal collision didn’t amount to serious’ misconduct

- WENDY GILLIS

A panel of Ontario Superior Court judges has tossed out a controversial decision by the provincial police force that found a fatal collision caused by an officer did not amount to “serious” misconduct — a ruling the man’s widow called a renewed chance for the OPP to “make the right decision.”

In an eight-page decision issued Tuesday, the court ordered the OPP to quash its 2023 decision concluding a deadly officer-involved crash didn’t justify formal misconduct charges and re-examine whether the driver, an on-duty cop, should be sent to a police tribunal in connection to the 2020 death of Tyler Dorzyk.

In a “step forward for meaningful police accountability,” the court also ruled that Courtney D’Arthenay deserved more than a cursory letter from the OPP advising her that there would be no misconduct charges against the officers involved in her spouse’s death because the misconduct wasn’t serious — yet providing no basis for that conclusion.

D’Arthenay, the court wrote, had “a legitimate expectation of receiving reasons justifying why conduct is not ‘of a serious nature’ when the officer’s conduct caused a civilian death.”

“It will not be readily apparent to many members of the public how police misconduct causing death is not considered serious. At a minimum, there is a legitimate expectation in having this explained,” reads the decision.