Family expected to pursue civil lawsuit
The Woodstock Police Force (WPF) will not lay criminal charges in the death of three-year-old Gunnar Dickison at the Connell Park Raceway on June 14, 2025. In a police report provided to the River Valley Sun following a Right to Information Request, officers concluded that no criminal wrongdoing occurred.
The investigation was led by WPF Sgt. Seth Cahill. The police report, filed on Nov. 14, 2025, notes the case was peer-reviewed and Crown-reviewed and found “insufficient grounds to proceed with criminal charges.”
Dickison was struck by the starting gate attached to the pacing truck on the opening day of the 2025 racing season.
The redacted report did not include witness statements or the names of those interviewed in the investigation, but it did provide a clearer picture of what happened that day.
Video evidence
WPF Cst. Joe Clements’ observations from a video recorded at the event noted that at six seconds in, the gate was fully extended, with four horses and their drivers behind it. At the 10-second mark, the pacing truck entered the straightaway. Clements noted that a spectator in a grey shirt was leaning back from the fence. At the 18-second mark, three more spectators can be seen leaning back from the fence as the pacing truck got closer, then 10 to 15 more people began to lean back.
“At this point the victim (redacted) can be seen in an orange shirt, leaning over the top railing of the fence with almost his entire upper body,” Clements reports. At the moment of impact, the starting gate strikes Dickison “in the head and knocks him off the fence.”
Cst. Clements notes that the video pans back to where Dickison was hit, and several people can be seen providing first aid. No photo or video evidence was provided with the police report.
The report also details the severity of injuries and says the toddler was breathing when paramedics left with him in the ambulance. The boy died in his mother’s arms that afternoon at the Upper River Valley Hospital.
Concerns over parallel investigation
A few days after the incident, Woodstock Police were concerned about a parallel investigation being conducted by the Maritime Provinces Harness Racing Commission. The organization had hired someone to conduct a separate investigation and had already begun interviewing key witnesses.
The investigator was contacted to “prevent contaminating witness statements.” In their report, the WPF expressed “concern” that their ability to obtain “pure version uncontaminated statements” was no longer possible. Harnass racing officials told officers that they had run “plenty of parallel investigations with police in the past without issue.”
The report also noted concerns over possible “statement contamination based on what may have or may not have said to any witness during the interview.” It also stated, “public perception would not be favourable if it became known that NB Harness racing officials have hired someone who had essentially obstructed the police investigation into the death of a child.”
During the WPF investigation, officers found no signs were posted at the track warning people to stay away from the fence. The report also said the only visible signs were “no trespassing” and “no parking.”
Civil suit expected
In a previous interview with the River Valley Sun, Dickison’s mother, Cora Fraser, noted family members had retained a lawyer but that the process “would take a long time to get to court.”
Former New Brunswick Attorney General and retired harness racer Michael Murphy didn’t expect criminal charges would be laid, but believes the family has grounds for a civil case. The well-known injury lawyer from Moncton said that recent incidents in New England, where spectators have been struck by starting gates, should have been a wake-up call for Maritime organizations, especially since many of the driving teams in the region race stateside.
In 2010, five harness racing fans at the Windsor Fair in Maine were injured by the starting gate. A lawsuit against the track was finally settled in 2022.
In 2016, a photographer was injured when the starting gate slammed into the fence in Saratoga, New York.
In 2022, at Maine’s Fryeburg Fair, a man was permanently injured when the starting gate struck him.
In 2023, a five-year-old from southern Illinois died after the starting gate struck her.
In all four instances, those who were injured or died were standing beside or leaning over the trackside fence when the accidents happened. A chest-high wooden fence along the harness racing tracks has been an industry norm for decades.
“All of it comes down to the question: was this reasonably foreseeable?” Murphy told the River Valley Sun, adding that if a suit is launched, multiple entities could be found responsible, including different levels of harness racing organizations in the region and the Town of Woodstock.
After the incident, Woodstock Town Council cancelled multiple races as it assessed track safety and voted to install a chain-link fence around Connell Park Raceway.
“I have five children who are grown,” explained Murphy. “It’s expected that children will be running around under your feet; that’s the reason you have fences and obstructions and security. You’ve invited these family with their small children; they come thinking there is some basic safety here, and that’s unfortunately something that didn’t happen in this case.”
Murphy stressed that Dickison’s parents should not blame themselves.
“Like any other parent at a fairground, I’ve turned my head to look at something, and like a flash, my kids were gone. Those parents should rest assured they did nothing wrong; they did nothing different than any other parent in New Brunswick or Canada would have done.”
