The verdict in the disciplinary hearing of a Sudbury police officer accused for attacking the integrity of members of the police department will take a few months.
Const. Robert Rheaume pleaded not guilty on Tuesday. He is charged with one count of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act for breaching the provisions of the GSPS corporate communications and social media policy, as well as the workplace discrimination and harassment policy.
On March 24, 2017, an article was posted on a local news website about the annual Sunshine list, released each year by the province that shows the salaries of all public sector employees earning $100,000 or more in the previous year.
On that same day, Rheaume posted comments on the comment thread under that article, in which he highlights the salary of the police service CAO Sharon Baiden, whose salary he said increased from $130,000 to $205,000 in four years.
“The year former (police) chief Frank Elsner left, she got a $48,000 raise. Sudbury taxpayers should be asking council how that happened,” he said in his post, according to the statement of facts.
Then, on March 28, he posted another comment on Facebook critical of raises given to higher-ups at Greater Sudbury Police Service.
“There are a handful of them that got extremely hefty raises; your taxes and mine going out because of the police service board's approval.”
He called out several members of the police service in his post by name, all women, some of whom received raises of more than $30,000 over a one-year period, asking “How do you f***ing justify that?”
David Migicovsky, lawyer for Greater Sudbury Police Service, said during the hearing on Tuesday Rheaume violated a few policies, in particular, the service's workplace harassment and social media policies.
GSPS confirmed that on March 28 an investigation was launched into Rheaume's conduct, as a result of concerns brought to Police Chief Paul Pedersen. The investigation was undertaken by the GSPS Professional Standards Bureau.
The service will not comment further while the matter is before the tribunal.
The hearing is being adjudicated by Greg Walton, a now retired Ontario Provincial Police superintendent. It is expected to take several months for his decision to be made.
