Killing of OPP officer raised national call for bail reform

Hamilton Spectator

24-04-2025

The legal saga of an OPP officer's death may be coming to a close, but the political ramifications of his on-duty death continues to raise issues of gun control,
bail
and the rights of Indigenous offenders across Canada.
Const. Greg Pierzchala's shooting was mourned — and politicized — across the country.
Canada's premiers wrote to then-prime minister Justin Trudeau about the 28-year-old officer's death, demanding more restrictive bail measures in gun cases.
Const. Greg Pierzchala was killed in the line of duty while helping with a car in a ditch near Hagersville.
Candidates in the current federal election talked about bail reform and gun laws in their recent debates. Those laws came into sharp focus following Greg's death.
At 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, jurors began deliberating on the fate of accused killers Randall McKenzie and Brandi Stewart-Sperry. Each is charged with first-degree murder.
Jurors never heard during the trial that a Hamilton judge granted McKenzie bail about six months before the shooting. The judge said he did so because McKenzie is Indigenous and the law is applied differently to Indigenous people.
Bail was also granted despite McKenzie's history of convictions for possessing firearms and breaching court orders.
He was already on a lifetime weapon prohibition when Greg was murdered.
The incident McKenzie was on bail for involved an intimate partner assault. He is accused of having a gun strapped to his body.
'It was a difficult decision; And I hope I'm right,' Superior Court Justice Harrison Arrell told the court as he granted bail.
Nor did jurors hear at the five-week murder trial that, while on bail, McKenzie cut off his ankle monitor, went on the lam and no police service actively searched for him — until after Greg was killed on the afternoon of Dec. 27, 2022.
Those facts brought police leaders, lawyers, politicians advocates and academics to call a provincial hearing that resulted in a report calling for — among other things — a reverse-onus on bail for both offences involving firearms and offenders who pose 'substantial risk to public safety.'
In the wake of Greg's murder, Hamilton police revived a version of its defunct bail enforcement unit, which was disbanded just before the shooting.
And the chief of Six Nations Police, in a brazen public statement, said no offender should be given special consideration regarding bail because they are Indigenous.
It's alleged that McKenzie and Stewart-Sperry were on a crime spree when they drove a stolen car into a ditch near Hagersville.
Greg had just passed his probation with the OPP that morning and had become a permanent, full-time officer able to go to calls alone.
He was shot six times almost immediately after he arrived. His own gun remained locked in its holster.
Greg's body-worn camera
recorded his own death.
The only issue for the jury to consider for
McKenzie
is whether or not he was the shooter.
Video played in court showed the body-cam footage from Const. Greg Pierzchala in the moments before he was killed.
If he was, because he killed an on-duty police officer, he is guilty of first-degree murder.
If he wasn't the shooter, he must be acquitted.
The jury must decide if
Stewart-Sperry
, knowingly and intentionally aided (helped) or abetted (encouraged) the shooter to commit murder. Or if she took part in a common unlawful act that she knew could result in murder.
Brandi Stewart-Sperry is on trial for the first-degree murder of Const. Greg Pierzchala on Dec. 27, 2022.
If the answer is yes to any of those questions, Stewart-Sperry is guilty of first-degree murder.
If jurors find a reasonable person who aided and abetted the shooter would have known the result could be dangerous, they must find her guilty of manslaughter. And if they find a reasonable person who took part in a common-law act with the shooter would have known that doing so was dangerous, they must also find her guilty of manslaughter.
If jurors find none of those things are true, they must find Stewart-Sperry not guilty.
When McKenzie was originally arrested on a domestic violence charge, a justice of the peace denied him bail because of the seized gun and his history.
But a bail review months later put McKenzie in front of Justice Arrell.
That day, Arrell explained to the court that McKenzie is Indigenous and the law has special provisions for Indigenous offenders.
'It is a well-known fact that such individuals are over-represented in our prison system,' said Arrell, 'especially in pre-trial custody, because of their challenges with poverty, lack of education and addiction issues. All of these factors are present in this case. I am confident the public would conclude that the current strict plan of house arrest, supervised by the accused's mother — with independent monitoring and counselling — is a reasonable restraint on the accused's liberty until trial.'
McKenzie is from Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.
'It doesn't matter what the race of the person is,' Chief Darren Montour of the Six Nations Police told The Spectator in an interview about the bail decision soon after the shooting. 'Look at the history of the person.'
'My thing is protecting the public.'
Montour's officers worked with OPP to
track and capture
McKenzie and Stewart-Sperry, taking them into custody about four hours after Greg was gunned down.
McKenzie was released on bail on June 27, 2022. Within weeks he is alleged to have cut the GPS monitoring device off his ankle and disappeared.
Neither Hamilton police nor Six Nations Police actively searched for him, The Spectator reported.
Hamilton police had disbanded its bail unit. Six Nations Police didn't have the resources to look for him.
On the day of the murder, McKenzie had been
on the run
for five months.
He was wanted for skipping bail, assault with a weapon, forcible confinement, uttering a threat and two counts of failing to comply with court orders.
Stewart-Sperry was wanted on a 30-month-old arrest warrant.