Former Thunder Bay Police Chief Sylvie Hauth and her legal counsel Holly Walbourne have been charged with obstructing a peace officer, breach of trust, and multiple counts of obstruction of justice.

Walbourne is currently on trial. She plead not guilty to all charges on Monday. The two were set to be tried together, but medical issues forced the trials to be separated and delayed Hauth’s proceedings to May 5.

Hauth and Walbourne are accused of downplaying their involvement in an internal “Home Sense Investigation” into Morriseau after the provincial police board took over the case.

The Home Sense Investigation

In the summer of 2020, the Thunder Bay Police Service was investigating a potential leak of confidential information to civilian reporter Brian Webster, who ran the Facebook page The Courthouse Inside Edition.

That summer, then-TBPS board chair Georjann Morriseau was shopping at Home Sense when a man wearing a COVID mask approached her. She testified on April 12 that he recognized her and identified himself as an officer, but she did not recognize him. He told her officers were “gossiping” about a text from Webster to an officer.

The text read:

“Hey Mike, I see they are thanking members of the Thunder Bay Police in their bust announcement. Any anonymous info about what hardworking TBPS officers did?”

The police phone that received the text from Brian Webster was later confirmed to belong to Constable Michael Dimini, who had left the unit five months earlier. Dimini was later cleared of charges regarding the leak, but was found guilty on breach of trust and obstruction of justice charges in February stemming from unlawful residential searches and arrests in November of 2020.

Morriseau relayed this Home Sense conversation to Deputy Chief Ryan Hughes, but could not identify the man.

Police took this very seriously. Several members of the force interviewed Morriseau about the Home Sense incident, including Holly Walbourne, who travelled to Morriseau’s house to speak with her on the subject. During these interviews, police raised the names of multiple officers in an effort to identify the masked man, but Morriseau denied them all.

Morriseau testified that investigators treated her as though they believed she was lying. She said she felt “interrogated” and bombarded with questions. At this point, Morriseau was still a witness in the investigation.

One of the officers suggested as the masked Home Sense man was Detective Jason Rybak. In November 2020, Rybak told Ryan Hughes that he was informed his name came up in an internal investigation. Shortly after, he revealed that Morriseau gave him that information.

This launched the criminal investigation into Morriseau for breach of trust on November 23, 2020.

In December of 2020, then-police chief Sylvie Hauth decided to forward the investigation to the OPP. In a memo to her board written ten months later, she said it would not be appropriate for a police board to investigate any of its own members.

In August of 2021, the OPP cleared Morriseau of all wrongdoing. They concluded there was no basis to lay criminal charges.

Hauth’s memoranda

In October of 2021, Sylvie Hauth presented a memo to the police board regarding the OPP investigation into the allegations against Morriseau. Morriseau made a complaint to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) alleging discrimination based on her race as an Indigenous woman.

The Ontario Civilian Police Commision (OCPC) looked into Hauth’s Memorandum. In June of 2022, they alleged in their Notice of Particulars that “(Hauth’s) report contained a number of false statements which would lead the reasonable reader to conclude that she had no knowledge that DC Hughes had initiated a criminal investigation against Chair Morriseau until December 9, 2020. That memo was distributed to the Board members on October 12, 2021 and it was anticipated they could rely upon it for the truth of its contents.”

Hauth also drafted a second memo a week after the first, in which the OCPC alleged she continued to mislead on the date she was informed of the Rybak interview and that a Production Order against Morriseau was imminent, not a mere possibility.

The full OCPC final summary report can be found here.

The aftermath

The OCPC put in place an administrator to oversee the board in April of 2022. Many of the board members resigned shortly thereafter.

Sylvie Hauth was suspended that same year after the OCPC brought misconduct charges against her under the Police Services Act, and formally resigned in 2023.

Holly Walbourne resigned as TBPS legal council in 2023.

Morriseau has also left the force and serves as Commissioner of the First Nation Tax Commission.

The present

Holly Walbourne is currently on trial for obstructing a peace officer, breach of trust, and two counts of obstruction of justice. The trial is expected to last around three weeks, which would mean a verdict should be determined by May 1.

Sylvie Hauth is facing charges of obstructing a public or peace officer, breach of trust and two counts of obstruction of justice. Her trial is set for May 5.