A court case involving the former police chief of Thunder Bay, Ontario, is set to return to court on May 5, 2026, as the community continues to grapple with the fallout of an internal investigation into the former chair of the city’s police service board. Former Thunder Bay Police Service Chief Sylvie Hauth is facing charges of obstruction of justice and breach of trust. The Crown alleges she lied to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission about a 2020 investigation into former board chair Georjann Morriseau that was conducted by Deputy Chief Ryan Hughes and that Hauth allegedly oversaw.
The original investigation traces back to August 2020, when Morriseau, then chair of the Thunder Bay Police Service Board, was approached at a local HomeSense by an officer who shared a rumour about a possible police leak. After Morriseau reported it, Hughes opened a probe that eventually shifted to focus on her, included a production order for her cell phone records, and was granted by a justice of the peace just 36 minutes after submission. Hughes testified he was unaware that production orders can only be granted in criminal investigations, and that he did not know it was a conflict of interest for a police service to investigate its own board chair. Independent legal advice obtained at the time warned that such an investigation would harm public confidence because it lacked the necessary independence. The OPP eventually took over the case and cleared Morriseau in October 2021.
In a related case, former police lawyer Holly Walbourne was charged with the same offences and was found not guilty on April 24, 2026. Her acquittal rested on when she was made aware of the investigation into Morriseau and what she later told the OCPC. The OPP criminally charged Hauth in April 2024, with Walbourne arrested on the same charges days later.
The situation has drawn significant attention because it followed twin 2018 watchdog reports that made Canada’s first findings of systemic anti-Indigenous racism in a police service and its board. Morriseau later filed a human rights complaint against police leadership and the board, but the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ruled her case ineligible, finding that a board chair is not an employee of the service or the board.
