Manitoba RCMP officer admits to discreditable conduct for referring to teen girl as 'jailbait' on Instagram

A Manitoba RCMP officer has admitted to discreditable conduct for incidents that include calling a 17-year-old girl "jailbait" in a message he sent to her on Instagram after pulling over a vehicle she was in. 

The officer, Const. Stephan Shewchuk from the Portage la Prairie traffic division, sat in a grey suit with his legs shaking on Tuesday, during the first day of an RCMP disciplinary hearing in Winnipeg.

Shewchuk, a seven-year member of the force, has admitted to three counts of discreditable conduct dating back to 2020. He is currently suspended with pay, but faces further disciplinary action.

The administrative tribunal, held at the Delta Hotel in front of an adjudicator from Ottawa, heard in its first day that on Oct. 31, he made a traffic stop for a random sobriety check.

He later followed one of the female passengers in the car, a 17-year-old girl, on Instagram, telling her she looked familiar. She responded that he had pulled her over.

He replied, "Driver was only 18 so how old are you lol?" adjudicator Louise Morel, who is the conduct board for this case, said while reading the messages aloud Tuesday.

"I'm 17 lol," the girl wrote.

Shewchuk responded "Ah hah oh jailbait lol."

"Lol yeah," the teen said.

The officer then asked her if she was turning 18 that year or the next year.

"This was an inappropriately sexually suggestive comment made to a minor," Morel said after agreeing the officer's actions discredited the force.

"Police officers have a duty to protect youth and make them safe at all times. He failed to do that."

It also wasn't the first time Shewchuk had engaged in such behaviour, the hearing was told.

During an earlier traffic stop, on Oct. 20, 2020, he gave a female driver a warning for speeding. He later sent that driver a message on Instagram, saying she looked familiar and asking where he knew her from. That person didn't respond.

Morel said following Shewchuk's Instagram interaction with the 17-year-old, she blocked the officer on the social media platform.

Officer apologizes to women

Barry Benkendorf, a lawyer for the federal Department of Justice, told the hearing on Tuesday that "after finding out she was 17, he still pursued her, and it's clear that the overall intent here was sexual in nature."

Giving his testimony on Wednesday, the second day of the hearing, the officer apologized to both women and said his "jailbait" message was "horrible" and "derogatory."

"I was using social media to reach out to random people, primarily women, for some form of human connection or friendly positive communication," he said. 

"I do realize that adding random people on Instagram or chatting with people on TikTok is not the healthiest method now. At the time, it was my only connection to the outside world."

He wept while explaining several triggering events that led to him having poor mental health, including a breakup, being investigated by Manitoba's police watchdog in 2019 for another code of conduct matter and being lonely during the pandemic.

Shewchuk detailed three triggering high-risk events he was involved in before texting the women.

They included a standoff in a crawl space, an active shooter call where Shewchuk said he thought he was going to die and never see his son again, and recovering dead bodies.

Fighting back tears, he said all of that together put him at a low point and later caused him to have a panic attack in a Sobeys parking lot, which is when he finally got help.

Officer should be dismissed: lawyer

The conduct board heard on Tuesday that after the message exchange involving the 17-year-old, several people at a nearby high school became aware of the conversation, which then was posted on social media.

Shewchuk admitted to breaching the RCMP's social media policy by putting his badge number in his username and being easily identifiable as a member of the force. 

The hearing heard he was pictured with his son in his profile picture on the platform, and had the user name Stephan_lights_and_sirens_61781_. 

Benkendorf, who is essentially acting in the role of prosecutor in the hearing, said while he didn't want to take away from the officer's heartfelt remarks, he pointed out that nowhere in his testimony did he deal with the fact that he was a 30-year-old police officer pursuing young girls.

"As an adult male, he is going after young girls. I have a 17-year-old daughter. I can tell you that if a 30-year-old male attempted to pick her up, I'd be very upset," the lawyer said.

"To find out that person was a person in a position of trust, like a police officer, would be doubly upsetting."

Benkendorf said the behaviour cannot be tolerated and asked for Shewchuk to be dismissed from the force or resign within 14 days. 

Shewchuk's lawyer, Josh Weinstein, submitted a certificate of appreciation from the RCMP and an award his client received for rescuing and preventing the suicide of a teenager in August 2020.

He also submitted six reference letters for Morel to consider that speak to his character. 

RCMP spokesperson Tara Seel said the force contacted Manitoba's police watchdog about the incident, but the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba determined this matter did not fall under its mandate, which is to investigate serious incidents involving on or off-duty police officers in the province.

The hearing continues on Thursday.