injusticebusters 2004 > > Alberta Solicitor General calls for independent police investigator

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Alberta Police

Cops need outside investigator, says police commission head

By JERRY WARD, LEGISLATURE BUREAU, Edmonton Sun, February 19, 2004

Allegations of police misconduct should be investigated by a civilian oversight committee, Alberta's solicitor general and Edmonton's police commission chairman agree. "These complaints are made every month," commission chairman Martin Ignasiak said yesterday.

"There's a number of complaints against the conduct of individual police officers. Those complaints as a matter of course should be dealt with by an outside body.

"We maintain that police shouldn't investigate police because if that happened 20 years ago, then this issue of H-316 wouldn't be an issue."

Former city cop Vern Colley recently told media about his 1983 investigation - file H-316 - into complaints by a number of prostitutes that they were allegedly shaken down by some city cops for sex or cash. But before he could complete the probe, police brass at the time ordered him to abandon it, Colley claims.

The force has since ordered an independent review of Colley's file, H-316. Its findings are due next week.

"If (Ignasiak) feels there needs to be further investigation, I will conduct an independent (review)," said Solicitor General Heather Forsyth.

Forsyth said she's committed to implementing a citizen oversight committee by year's end - more than four years after a government review of the Police Act was launched to deal with allegations the police force had been infiltrated by an outlaw motorcycle gang.

However, what that citizens committee will look like and what its mandate will be have yet to be formulated.

"We are moving forward," she said. "We realize it's a priority. We want to make sure we have the right decision for not only the men and women who serve in this province that do a helluva good job but also the citizens of this province."

She says she'll review independent bodies in Ontario and Australia to determine how best to amend the Police Act.

Ontario uses a civilian agency to look into allegations against police officers, while Australia has a police integrity commission that looks at serious claims of police misconduct.

"We want to make sure we have the best model possible for Albertans," Forsyth said. "By the end of the year we will have some sort of model up."

Acting police chief Mike Bradshaw said yesterday it's a "vocal" and "very, very small minority" of people who have complained to police about the current investigation process.

"It's not as if hundreds and hundreds of people are phoning us every day," Bradshaw said.

The cop investigations follow requirements in the Police Act, and if those rules change, that's fine, he said. "Anything we do with any sort of investigation is governed by that act."




Revitalizing the archives From 1998 until 2002, injusticebusters was in the throes of identity crisis. What was it? What were we doing? We grappled with editorial policy at the same time we were learning the nuts and bolts of building and posting a website. Once we had a secure, paid site I had full editorial control, although I talked regularly to Richard Klassen who was forced to move his family several times and did not always have access to the internet. Rick's pages: one | two We posted our earliest and later actions. Early versions of the site can be found on the Wayback Machine. I began following other threads to stories of police and prosecutorial misconduct and the site's character took on another facet: a newsclipping scrapbook where stories could live longer than they would in print form. I also began picking up other stories of wrongfully convicted people. It was an explosion. By 2003 there were over 700 pages. I also had contact with several other people (Don Smith, Leon Walchuk, Monique Turenne, the Vopnis) and kept these stories going. It was the story of the Ross children's treatment at the hands of the Saskatchewan government which grabbed the attention of The Fifth Estate. The civil claim (The $10M Lawsuit as we called it) was only mentioned briefly at the end of their show which aired in November, 2000. When Richard Klassen began to make progress in bringing his civil claim to court, the government and police defendants alleged he was breaking the rules of court by publishing discovery material on the internet. MacNeil clinic (the document which started it all) The Thompson Papers Carol Bunko-Ruys reports This claim was absolutely false. However, rather than risk being thrown out of his civil claim, Klassen undertook before Judge Mona Dovall to sever all ties with the website. The court fights: Les Perreaux report QB271 These pages have links which lead to other pages from that era. Now that some of the dust has settled, I have been going back through the material we had posted in the early days. In the spirit of keeping the scrapbook alive, I have been reformatting and placing links. The original material remains intact. I hope the information, which chronicles our struggle is useful to you. The identity crisis is over. We know who we are --Sheila Steele, March 28, 2005

Blogging

Blogging has been in the news. It is the new, trendy thing with 40,000 new blogs being created each day. I established a blog for this website last September and it is now "taking off." These are a few of the pages with ongoing discussions.

Tasering Mary Lutz
Saskatchewan Centenary
Quint Blog discussion
Rotten apples in the Saskatoon Police
Blogging for choice
Michael Cardamone witch hunt
Implement recommendations of public inquiries
Stealing from the poor
Vancouver's killer cops
Tisdale rapists appeal
Winnipeg police misdeeds
Milgaard Inquiry
Chief Sabo: can he be trusted?
The Old Boys' Club Must Go!
Vancouver activists
John Hudak: Falsely accused mountie
City of intolerance
Constable Larry Lockwood: Exciteable!
Eric Cline

This is a great way for like-minded people to communicate and share our views. It is easier than making a website and marginally more difficult than a forum.

People who want to contribute simply have to punch the "comment" link and they will be taken to a page with a box which allows them to write their comment, preview and post it. It takes a while for the comment to show up and some people get impatient and repost. That's fine, I trash the duplicate posts and no harm done.

Please, please give it a try. The internet is distinguished from other media in that it is really and truly interactive. Blogging makes it possible to express your viewpoint even if you don't have a computer. You can go to the library or a friend's place or an internet cafe. Once you've mastered the basics (and believe me, if I can do it, you can do it) you will be participating in one of the most democratic -- and potentially powerful -- media the world as we know it has ever seen.

Come on. Don't be shy. Join the Weblog World! -- Sheila Steele, March 20, 2005

Toronto Police paid out $30M in secretly resolved claims over last five years

Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell

Truth suppress'd, whether by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com

If you hold the mouth of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb

Publisher : Sheila Steele

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Another target of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway

Our activism contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the civil trial.

Index to the stories on this website

This is not regularly updated so if you are looking for a particular story and you have a name or keyword, please use the site search engine(at the bottom of the page) which IS regularly updated

Index to Saskatoon Police stories

This is a pretty good scrapbook for the 1998-2002 period.