B.C. Attraction Court docket says disciplinary case towards officer can go forward

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A B.C. Court docket of Attraction panel of three judges has reversed a call by a decrease court docket that had dismissed a discovering {that a} Vancouver Police sergeant lied to an RCMP officer.

The province’s highest court docket this week dominated {that a} resolution reached beneath the authority of the Workplace of the Police Grievance Commissioner, that VPD Sgt. Ajmer Sandhu had “dedicated misconduct by knowingly making false statements in the middle of an investigation into the conduct of one other officer,” would stand.

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The conduct of that VPD officer, solely recognized as “Const. M”, included attempting to intimidate a Crown prosecutor whereas off responsibility and attending a listening to in Surrey provincial court docket in 2018, wherein Sandhu’s nephew was the accused, based on the explanations for judgment written by Justice Gail Dickson and agreed to by Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon and Justice Peter Wilcock.

A criticism lodged with the police criticism commissioner alleged Const. M “was standing within the courthouse hallway with a gaggle of individuals related to the accused when he tried to intimidate her (the prosecutor),” based on the judgment. Sandhu was a part of the group, it mentioned.

In its preliminary investigation, the Vancouver Police Division ordered Sandhu to jot down a report on the incident. His particulars conflicted with the Crown prosecutor’s description and different prosecutors who witnessed it and the case, so the police criticism commissioner ordered an investigation by the RCMP overseen by Chief Les Sylven of the Central Saanich police.

Sylven rejected RCMP Insp. Brian MacDonald’s first report of his investigation, instructing him to “examine whether or not Sgt. Sandhu appeared to have dedicated misconduct by offering different witnesses with info with a purpose to mislead the investigation and deceit by knowingly making a false or deceptive assertion in his report and statements,” the judgment mentioned.

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MacDonald then interviewed Sandhu in March 2019.

Sylven finally dominated that three of 4 allegations of deceit towards Sandhu had been proved on a steadiness of possibilities, the judgment mentioned. His self-discipline was a demotion to first-class constable with no probability to compete for promotion for 5 months, it mentioned.

Sandhu, who denied the allegations, utilized for public listening to however the police criticism commissioner as a substitute scheduled a overview on the report, which was to be held in, 2020, the judgment mentioned.

However that overview was placed on maintain as a result of Sandhu utilized for a judicial overview.

Throughout that overview, B.C. Supreme Court docket Chief Justice Hinkson quashed the police criticism commissioner’s ruling of misconduct and the self-discipline Sandhu confronted as a result of he discovered Sylven erred in issuing the discover of criticism towards Sandhu because it was exterior of his jurisdiction, the judgment mentioned.

He dominated that Sylven “acted within the overlapping roles because the complainant and adjudicator” and he disagreed that was a “benign procedural flaw,” discovering the proceedings had been due to this fact “procedurally unfair.”

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Hinkson dismissed the ruling of misconduct and Sandhu’s demotion, based on the judgment.
Within the enchantment reversing Hinkson’s resolution, Dickson wrote that this was an “distinctive case” and “it will not be within the pursuits of justice to quash the choices concerning Sgt. Sandhu and require the method to be repeated, with all the related price and delay.”

She added: “The method was honest, the misconduct in query was severe, and the substantive resolution is unchallenged.”

She mentioned the police criticism commissioner’s resolution would have been the identical if Sylven hadn’t made a jurisdictional error.

“In these circumstances, no helpful objective can be served by requiring the events to start out the method over once more,” she wrote.

Andrea Spindler, the deputy police criticism commissioner, mentioned in an electronic mail that her workplace is reviewing the choice.

“The Police Act is complicated and is meant to strike the suitable steadiness of accountability and equity,” she mentioned. “The steering of the courts is important to sustaining this steadiness.”

She mentioned the overview on the report, which was placed on maintain so Sandhu throughout the court docket motion, will now go forward in entrance of retired provincial court docket Choose Carole Baird Ellan.

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The VPD didn’t return a request for remark. Sandhu couldn’t be reached.

In 2015, Sandhu was awarded a “police exemplary service medal” from Canada’s Governor Basic.

The medal, for officers with 20 years or extra of service, “acknowledges cops who’ve served in an exemplary method, characterised by good conduct, trade and effectivity.”

In 2007, when he was a VPD detective constable, he led the surveillance workforce following gangster Jamie Bacon on the day of the Surrey Six murders on Oct. 19, testifying in 2013 police had been watching Bacon to gather intelligence about him and his associates and never in reference to a selected prison investigation.

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