B.C. Enchantment Court docket says disciplinary case in opposition to officer can go forward

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

The province’s highest courtroom this week dominated {that a} choice reached below the authority of the Workplace of the Police Criticism 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 obligation and attending a listening to in Surrey provincial courtroom in 2018, through which Sandhu’s nephew was the accused, in response to 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),” in response to the judgment. Sandhu was a part of the group, it stated.

In its preliminary investigation, the Vancouver Police Division ordered Sandhu to put in writing 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 in an effort to mislead the investigation and deceit by knowingly making a false or deceptive assertion in his report and statements,” the judgment stated.

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MacDonald then interviewed Sandhu in March 2019.

Sylven finally dominated that three of 4 allegations of deceit in opposition to Sandhu have been proved on a steadiness of chances, the judgment stated. His self-discipline was a demotion to top notch constable with no probability to compete for promotion for 5 months, it stated.

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

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 in opposition to Sandhu because it was exterior of his jurisdiction, the judgment stated.

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 have been due to this fact “procedurally unfair.”

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Hinkson dismissed the ruling of misconduct and Sandhu’s demotion, in response to the judgment.
Within the attraction reversing Hinkson’s choice, Dickson wrote that this was an “distinctive case” and “it will not be within the pursuits of justice to quash the selections concerning Sgt. Sandhu and require the method to be repeated, with the entire related value and delay.”

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

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

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

Andrea Spindler, the deputy police criticism commissioner, stated in an e-mail that her workplace is reviewing the choice.

“The Police Act is advanced and is meant to strike the suitable steadiness of accountability and equity,” she stated. “The steerage of the courts is essential to sustaining this steadiness.”

She stated the overview on the report, which was placed on maintain so Sandhu through the courtroom motion, will now go forward in entrance of retired provincial courtroom 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 Normal.

The medal, for officers with 20 years or extra of service, “acknowledges law enforcement officials 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 group following gangster Jamie Bacon on the day of the Surrey Six murders on Oct. 19, testifying in 2013 police have been watching Bacon to gather intelligence about him and his associates and never in reference to a selected legal investigation.

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