Following notice to their counsel that we would proceed with default consequences absent a formal response, the Ottawa Police Services Board, Steven Desjourdy, Melburn White, Christopher Tessier, and Cedric Nizman served a Statement of Defence and Crossclaim on June 16, 2025—the final day of their extended timeline, and five days after bringing a Rule 2.1 request seeking to have the entire action stayed or dismissed ‘on its face.’

Despite denying liability, these Defendants have brought a Crossclaim—a formal legal proceeding between co-defendants through which one seeks to shift responsibility for resulting liability to another—against the Crown and the Attorney General (collectively, “Ontario”) for full indemnity, contribution, and costs. They contend that any finding of liability against them would have arisen from prosecutorial conduct for which Ontario bears ultimate legal and financial responsibility. The Crossclaim stands as an implicit acknowledgment that serious institutional failures occurred within the criminal proceedings brought against us.

This turn by a municipal police services board against the province exposes a rare rupture between state institutions that ordinarily present a united front. Rather than advancing a common defence, the police have shifted blame to Crown prosecutors—an extraordinary act that lays bare internal fault lines within the justice system itself. In a case already confronting serious questions of institutional accountability, this shift adds a deeper structural layer: the public is now witnessing two pillars of state power—the police and the Crown—in open conflict over who is responsible for the harms alleged.

The Supreme Court has held that the Crown is immune from negligence claims arising out of prosecutorial conduct. Because contribution requires shared fault in negligence, it is well established that police defendants cannot typically seek indemnity from the Crown for harms caused through prosecutorial discretion. That legal barrier renders the Crossclaim inherently tenuous and positions it as a likely target for a formal challenge by Ontario.