Dancer’s request for review of NRP investigation denied

Ontario’s Divisional Court has shot down a request for a judicial review of a Niagara Regional Police investigation into an alleged sexual assault involving an exotic dancer three years ago.

The woman, whose identify is protected by a public publication ban, said she was sexually and physically assaulted while working as a dancer at a Niagara Falls strip club in August 2020, but no charges were laid by police at the time.

Although the woman filed a complaint against the officers who investigated the assaults with of the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) on June 9, 2021, the provincial watchdog agency referred the complaint back to the NRP’s professional standards unit for an investigation, rather than investigating the complaint itself or referring it to another police service.

Niagara police then cleared of misconduct three of the five officers involved in the woman’s case, but determined there were reasonable grounds to believe two officers committed misconduct of a “less serious” nature by failing to inform the woman on how to secure forensic evidence or obtain a sexual assault evidence kit and not referring her to victim services.

During a hearing in May, the court was asked to overturn OIPRD’s decision to hand the investigation back to Niagara police, and to assign it to another police force “for a fulsome and thorough investigation.”

However, in its decision released last week the court dismissed the case.

The woman said she and her lawyers are reviewing the court’s decision while noting inconsistencies between the court ruling and her testimony. She said she is considering legal options available to her at this time.

The alleged incident occurred Aug. 22, 2020, when the woman said she was performing at a nightclub when a man offered her a large sum of money to leave with him and have sex. When she refused, she said, the man reached out and briefly touched her vagina, leading to a physical altercation.

She said a security guard intervened and dragged her outside of the establishment. But by the time police officers arrived, the alleged perpetrator had left.

In his ruling, Justice Graeme Mew wrote OIPRD felt the NRP’s professional standards unit “should be able to conduct a thorough review of the matter, taking into account their own sex assault investigation policies.”

“We understand why the applicant disagrees with that decision. But we see nothing in the procedure employed by the OIPRD which would breach the low level of procedural fairness owed to complainants at the screening phase,” the decision said.

The woman, whose identify is protected by a public publication ban, said she was sexually and physically assaulted while working as a dancer at a Niagara Falls strip club in August 2020