Sgt. Chris Hrnchiar pleads guilty to making racist comments about Annie Pootoogook

An Ottawa police officer with 30 years of experience has pleaded guilty to makingracist online comments about the death of a prominentInukartist earlier this fall.

Sgt. ChrisHrnchiar entered the plea at a police hearing in Ottawa Tuesday morning.

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He had been charged with two counts of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act after making comments about Annie Pootoogook. One charge relates to knowingly using racistcomments and the other centres on commenting aboutan open investigation.

Pootoogook was found dead in the Rideau River onSept. 19 in what police are investigating as a suspicious death.

I'm truly sorry for my actions.Sgt. ChrisHrnchiar

A few days after her body was identified, Hrnchiar posted from his Facebook account in the commentsection of an Ottawa Citizen story that her death "could be a suicide, accidental, she got drunk and fell in the river and drowned, who knows."

In a second post, Hrnchiarwrote "much of the Aboriginal population in Canada is just satisfied being alcohol or drug abusers."

At the time Hrnchiar was the supervisor of the forensic identification detective who was responsible of processing the scene and identifyingPootoogook.

A member of the public,VeldonCoburn,alertedOttawa police Chief CharlesBordeleauand Mayor Jim Watsonabout the comments.

Demotion recommended

According to anagreed statement of facts, Hrnchiaracknowledged to the Ottawa Police Service professional standards section that he posted the comments and recognized "the seriousness of his misconduct."

"I'm truly sorry for my actions,"Hrnchiarsaid at the hearing on Tuesday.

Matt Skof, president of theOttawaPolice Association, said Hrnchiar wanted to apologizefrom thebeginning, but the hearing process had to play out.

"It's been very difficult. It's been difficult on his family, it's been difficult on himself. And he's realizedof course, all the way throughout, how troublingand damagingthe comments have been," he said.

"He's a good officer."

Skof said this incident is "obviously" not reflective of the Ottawa police as a whole. He wouldn't say why Hrnchiarmade the comments in the first place.

ChristianeHuneault, general counsel for the Ottawa Police Service,has recommendedHrnchiarbe demoted for three months and attend multicultural training, addingthe penalty should send a clear message that this type of conduct is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.

Hrnchiarhas accepted the recommendation, but the sentence hasn't been rendered.

Skof said he understands not everyone will be satisfied with the severity of the recommendations.

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"This concept of discussions being within the community that may be affected, that's always more beneficial. There's more benefit to that as as opposed to just leveraging a financial fine," he said.

He will be back on Dec. 7when retired York Region police deputy chief Terence Kelly, who heard the proceeding,
will present his decision on penalty.

Hrnchiar has continued to work for the police service throughout this process.