(Vancouver) Three members of a Metro Vancouver RCMP detachment could be fired following allegations of “atrocious,” “racist” and “horrible” behaviour reported by a fellow officer.
Constables Philip Dick, Ian Solven and Mersad Mesbah are due to appear in code of conduct hearings on February 17 over allegations of discrimination, harassment and bringing the police force into disrepute.
However, none of these allegations have been proven.
In court documents filed seeking a search warrant, an officer with the RCMP’s professional standards unit in Coquitlam, B.C., says another member of the detachment complained of harassment by the accused officers.
The complaint describes a “climate of harassment” by the trio “directed against others based on their race, gender and perceived value as police officers.”
The plaintiff — who was trained by Philip Dick — says in the complaint that the officers engaged in comments on an online chat group, in some cases bragging about “tasing unarmed black people,” mocking a female police officer’s genitals and refusing to help another officer on a call because he was gay.
“The members of the chat group never talk about their own lives. They use the group to say negative things about work or horrible things about the people they work with,” the court documents say.
The complainant called the chat group “horrific.” “He thought it was racist and horrible stuff, so he would skim through it rather than read it in full,” the filing also states.
The documents also state that the complainant tried to leave the chat group but was told it was “being used for operational purposes and he had to be part of it,” and was accused of “not being a member of the team” if he did not join the group.
The complaint also alleges a number of acts committed by the three officers outside of the group discussion, including denigrating members of the Indigenous community by telling them they had fetal alcohol syndrome, using the “n” word and calling a woman who reported a sexual assault “stupid” because of her ethnicity. In other alleged instances, they justified domestic violence by saying “women deserve it.”
The RCMP intends to “seek the termination of the members at the hearing” and that all three men have been suspended since June 2021, when the allegations surfaced.
The British Columbia RCMP referred The Canadian Press’ request for comment to the RCMP’s national communications team, which remained silent.