Inquest rules Fergus man's death a homicide after he was shot by police

A jury has ruled that a Fergus man’s death in 2021 was a homicide.

A coroner’s inquest was announced earlier this year to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of a man who was fatally shot by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

Officers were called to a domestic disturbance on Belsyde Avenue East on Aug. 15, 2021.

According to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the OPP negotiated with the man who was hiding in a bedroom. They said he had knives with him.

When the man approached officers, they used pepper spray and conducted energy weapons on him. An officer then fired a gun at the man.

The man, 31-year-old Mathias Bunyan, was killed by the shot.

Bunyan’s family told CTV News he had been struggling with mental health issues and they had been planning on staging an intervention with him later that week.

The officer who fired the shot was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by the SIU in December 2021.

Inquest’s ruling

Documents from the Office of the Chief Coroner list Bunyan’s cause of death as a ‘gunshot wound to the chest.’

The inquest jury also called the death a ‘homicide’ in their ruling.

"What that means in the coroner's system is that this was a non accidental death, caused by others. It doesn't have the same meaning as in a criminal context, where there would be liability and intent behind that," Akosua Matthews, legal counsel for Bunyan's family told CTV News on Thursday.

"The family is very pleased to have this result," she said. "Even though it is difficult news to recieve at this time of year in particular."

The jury put forth 15 recommendations following the investigation into Bunyan’s death.

They are asking the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health to increase funding and resources for mental health and addictions services in Wellington County and other similar areas in the province. The jury wants that funding to increase the availability of mental health crisis and addictions programs and add more spaces for psychiatric assessment and treatment.

The jury also recommended the Government of Ontario increase funding for the OPP to make sure crisis negotiators are always available at all OPP detachments across the province.

Groves Memorial Community Hospital was urged to ensure employees are given training on the legal standards regarding restraint or confinement before a patient is sent to a psychiatric facility for assessment.

Homewood Health Centre was asked to revise their long-form Emergency Mental Health and Addictions Services Mental Health Assessment to include screening questions on gender dysphoria and potential suicide or self-harm risk factors associated with it.

They jury recommended The Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy review footage from Bunyan’s death to create training on conflict prevention, de-escalation and communication techniques for dealing with crisis situations.

The Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General is being asked to develop a working group that would look at what it would take to give officers more non-lethal use of force options that could be used during mental health or drug-induced crisis calls.

Matthews said one of the methods she would like examined is the use of pepper spray.

 "I think members of the public might think, 'Well, what's the harm with using pepper spray?' It's the lesser use of force than other options," Matthews said. "In this case, what we've learned is that police are trained, at college and in the academy, that there are risks of using pepper spray on someone who is experiencing a mental health crisis. That it can make them act unpredicably."

Matthews said the latest development reopens a wound for the family still dealing the the acute grief of the loss.

"I think this inquest shows a familiar story. It is often the case that people who cannot access needed mental health services, if they end up experiencing a mental health crisis and police are called to their home, this often results in police [involved] deaths," Matthews said.

But the inquest may not be the end of the case for the family.

"There is a lawsuit that the family has out against the provincial Crown that represents the OPP in this case, and that remains pending," Matthews said. "That is the only other available legal proceeding that the family can pursue arising from the incident."

Full list of recommendations

To the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health

1. Increase funding and resources for mental health and addictions services in Wellington County. This should include funding and recourses directed at:

• Increasing the availability of patient-centred mental health crisis and addictions programs;
• Increasing the number of beds dedicated to psychiatric assessment and treatment, an
• Increasing access to addictions resources

2. Investigate increasing funding and recourses for mental health and addictions services in all similar areas of Ontario to ensure adequate funding and resources directed at:

• Increasing the availability of patient-centred mental health crisis and addictions programs;
• Increasing the number of beds dedicated to psychiatric assessment and treatment, and
• Increasing access to addictions resources

To the Government of Ontario

3. Increase funding and recourses to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) specifically directed at ensuring at ensuring that crisis negotiators are available 24/7 at each OPP detachment across Ontario

4. Increase funding and resources to the OPP to ensure that Emergency Response Team officers are available to respond to events in a timely manner throughout the province

5. Increase funding and resources to the OPP to enable development and implementation of expanded scenario-based training

To Groves Memorial Community Hospital and Homewood Health Centre

6. Ensure that education and training is given that accurately reflects the current legal standards relating to the restraint or confinement of a person at Groves Memorial Community Hospital before ethe person is sent to a psychiatric facility for a psychiatric assessment

To Homewood Health Centre

7. Following consultation with experts, revise the Emergency Mental Health & Addictions Service (EMHAS) Mental health Assessment – long Form, completed by nursing staff, to:

• Include screening questions related to gender dysphoria;
• Include gender dysphoria-related issues as suicide/self-harm risk factors

To the Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy

8. Review and analyze the body worn camera footage from this event (Exhibit #1) and use the results of this analysis to inform future training on:

• Conflict prevention and de-escalation;
• Relational communication with persons in crisis;
• Techniques for containing crisis situations pending the arrival of specialized teams such as the Emergency Response Team, Tactics and Rescue Unit and/or crisis negotiators;
• Decision-making with respect to the use of intermediate weapons, including OC spray

To the Ontario Provincial Police

9. Develop a process to provide body worn camera footage of events involving police use-of-force to the Ontario Police College and Ontario Provincial Police Academy to facilitate the development of contextually appropriate training resources, including scenario-based training

10. Consider developing an appropriate approach to using body camera footage in police training, in consultation with the Ontario Police College and the Ontario Provincial Police Academy

11. Reinforce the requirement that all Ontario Provincial Police officers who deploy intermediate weapons and/or lethal force must identify both the justification for using force and the reasons for selecting that particular use of force tool or technique in the notes

12. Ensure that all OPP officers area instructed about the risks of using OC spray on individuals who are experiencing a mental health or drug induce crisis

13. Increase scenario-based training beyond the current re-qualification training by including delivery of quarterly scenario-based training sessions to reinforce the retention of subject matter and updated best practices

14. Ensure that persons with lived experience from peer-run organizations are directly involved in the development of both mental health crisis and de-escalation training

To the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General

15. Develop and prioritize a working group dedicated to analyzing the feasibility of providing frontline OPP officers with additional non-lethal use of force option that can be used when responding to calls involving individuals who are experiencing a mental health or drug-induced crisis