RCMP brass accused of sending 'inflammatory' email about officers in code of conduct hearing

A lawyer for one of three B.C. Mounties facing code of conduct proceedings for making racist and sexist comments in online group chats accused the leadership of their detachment of sending out an "inflammatory" email Tuesday commenting on the officers' evidence.

The allegation came a day after Const. Ian Solven testified at length about what he described as a toxic workplace and a failure by RCMP leadership to respond to the stresses and concerns of front-line officers.

"I'm not going to get into the whole content of the email," Solven's lawyer, Brad Kielmann, told the three-person code of conduct board.

"It's an email from the entire leadership team of the Coquitlam detachment — detachment-wide — making what I can only describe as highly inflammatory comments about the subject members, commenting about their evidence and making other editorialisms about them."

CBC News has not seen the letter.

A second revelation

The RCMP wants Solven, Const. Philip Dick and Const. Mersad Mesbah fired over posts to a private chat group on the Signal app and messages sent over the RCMP's internal mobile data messaging system.

Kielmann called the email "highly problematic" and said he planned to use it as the basis for an application to stay the proceedings, accusing RCMP brass of intimidating defence witnesses who work at the Coquitlam detachment.

The existence of the email was one of two bombshell revelations to rock the proceedings Tuesday, with an 11th hour witness coming forward to challenge Solven's testimony.

According to RCMP lawyer John MacLaughlan, Const. Sandra Morse contacted an RCMP inspector on Monday night after learning that Solven claimed he apologized to her for messages in which he mocked her weight by referring to her as "Big Sandy."

Morse is now slated to take the stand at the hearing on Wednesday morning.

"Constable Morse is expected to give evidence to effect that Constable Solven outright lied in his evidence," MacLaughlan told the board.

"He issued no apology to Constable Morse. And notwithstanding these allegations of odious and repugnant commentary directed at Constable Morse by the subject member in question, he asked her for a character reference." 

On Monday, Solven claimed he approached Morse to apologize shortly after realizing comments made on the RCMP's internal messaging system were about to be the subject of a complaint.

"I told her that I made some comments about her size and we had a good talk and I just apologized to her," Solven told his lawyer in direct testimony.

"I just said, 'Some of the things you've done at work have frustrated me, and I made it personal and I made some comments about your weight. She said, 'You've frustrated me too at work, and I've made some comments about you,' and we kind of just laughed it off. And we moved on, and I still talk to her regularly."

MacLaughlan told the board Morse's testimony speaks to Solven's credibility as a witness. He said she approached the RCMP unprompted.

"I do want to say that it's a very emotional statement from Const. Morse that underscores the impact of these comments," he said.

"And I think there's something to be said for that."

'Penis touching team'

During his testimony, Solven apologized for what he claimed were uncharacteristic comments in some of the messages he posted but sought to explain the context around others — including one in which he appeared to joke about Tasering an unarmed Black suspect.

The officer said he was referring to an incident in which he was called to a scene where he used his conducted energy weapon to take down a Black suspect threatening people with a syringe in front of a crowd of several hundred.

Solven said he worried a "three-second clip" of the interaction would make the news.

"I know the RCMP is not the best at defending its members publicly," he said.

"And I was concerned I was going to be thrown under the bus for this situation where I was just doing my job."

During his testimony, Solven spoke extensively of conflicts between general duty members and the members of special units, including major crime and the prolific offender targeting team — who he referred to as the "penis touching team" in one message.

He also gave an example of what he claimed was "management not really caring about what happened to us" when he said they refused to take action against an officer who clocked out during a detachment-wide call for help from two officers who feared for their lives.

Toward the end of his testimony Monday, Solven said he resorted to "dark humour" to deal with the stress of policing.

"It makes me remember how frustrated and how angry I was that I was just left to figure all this stuff out with no support from supervisors or senior management," he said.