The widow of an OPP officer who died by suicide more than six years ago accuses Saint John Police Chief Robert Bruce of misconduct in lawsuits against the Ontario Provincial Police and the police union.
Bruce is not a defendant, but Heather Harmer accuses him in the court documents of engaging in “tyrannical leadership, bullying and cronyism” when he served as commander of the field services branch in Orillia from 2011 to 2014. Her husband Jeffrey Harmer “was a victim of such treatment,” she claims.
Bruce retired from the OPP as chief superintendent in 2015 and was named Saint John chief in 2021.
Nine members of the Saint John Police Force filed conduct complaints against Bruce last year.
Eight of the officers have asked the Court of King’s Bench to conduct a judicial review after the Saint John Board of Police Commissioners and the New Brunswick Police Commission fully or partially dismissed their complaints related to allegations of a toxic work environment.
Ont. suits seek more than $31M in damages
Harmer, of Severn, Ont., filed her lawsuits against the OPP and the Ontario Provincial Police Association with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto in 2022.
She filed them on her own behalf, as administrator of the estate of Jeffrey Harmer and on behalf of their two children. They were 12 and nine when they lost their father.
Jeffrey was a staff sergeant in forensic identification services at OPP general headquarters in Orillia,
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