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Edmonton police
(2005)
-
- Police may have used
civilians in Overtime stakeout
Documents call into question internal investigation, former chief's
handling of matter
Charles Rusnell, The
Edmonton Journal, Thursday, September 01, 2005
EDMONTON - Police may have
used civilians in the surveillance of a newspaper columnist and
the former police commission chairman who were targeted in the
Overtime drunk-driving operation, internal police documents reveal.
One of the civilians may also
have been the source of the anonymous tip, upon which police
relied, in part, to justify the controversial operation.
Among the documents are the
final report of the internal investigation and an official transcript
of police radio communications. The Journal obtained the documents
earlier this week after its lawyers successfully unsealed a court
file.
The transcript identifies the
civilians as members of the Community Police Radio Network, volunteers
who assist police in drunk-driving operations. From the transcript,
it appears CPRN volunteers were involved in the Overtime incident
as observers.
At one point, two officers
-- Sgt. Glen Hayden and Const. Jim Smyth -- discussed not using
these civilians as witnesses. Instead they agreed to make any
potential traffic stop of the targets appear to be routine.
Despite this, two sources familiar
with the internal investigation say no civilians were ever interviewed
by investigators.
Stephen Jenuth of the Alberta
Civil Liberties Association said it is "frightening"
that police might use civilians for such purposes.
"It's almost like a Stalinesque
operation where the state wants to have a community of informers,"
the Calgary lawyer said. "The whole thing strikes me as
very weird, very frightening."
On Nov. 18, seven officers,
including three in plain clothes, staked out the Overtime Taproom
& Grill in downtown Edmonton for more than four hours during
an informal function sponsored by the local chapter of the Canadian
Association of Journalists, of which Edmonton Sun columnist Kerry
Diotte is president.
The stakeout became public
because reporters monitoring police radio scanners heard the
officers discussing the operation. Then police chief Fred Rayner
ordered an internal investigation, overseen by Calgary police
deputy chief Murray Stooke, who delivered his final report and
recommendations to Rayner in mid-January. In a Feb. 3 press conference,
Rayner contended that the drunk-driving operation was "routine."
He said police legitimately targeted Diotte after receiving an
anonymous tip that he might drink and drive. Then police commission
chairman Martin Ignasiak became a target after he was observed
by a plainclothes police officer, Rayner said. The former chief
also said that officers also observed patrons in the bar and
ended the operation only after they were satisfied that others
in the bar that night would not drive.
Stooke, during his review of
the internal investigation, asks a question that raises doubts
about whether the operation was routine.
"Why was Mr. Ignasiak
provided with a 'T' (for target) designation when there were
other persons in the Overtime who appeared impaired, and were
under observation by the team, who were not so designated?"
Stooke is referring to a section
of the police radio transcript in which police observe a man,
dressed all in black, who is seen by police officers to be stumbling
drunk outside the Overtime bar. He then goes back inside, yet
the officers appear to show no interest in designating him as
a potential target.
Stooke, in his report, also
points out that the police service's own policy in relation to
drunk-driving operations does not authorize "the use of
close surveillance" as occurred in the Overtime incident.
"Additionally, the members
assigned to this duty in 2004 Nov. 18 did not appear to be adequately
trained or equipped to carry out close surveillance in an efficient
manner."
Stooke also observes that none
of the officers involved in the operation took any notes.
"It was suggested that
no notes are required when an investigation does not result in
charges," he said. "Respectfully I disagree.
"Speaking specifically
to the lack of notes of the Overtime surveillance, the note-taking
standard as taught in surveillance training is that all members,
including supervisors, are required to record contemporaneous
notes."
Through documents obtained
through a Freedom of Information request, The Journal also learned
that none of the officers involved in the Overtime incident filed
the standard police form required, and routinely filed, for such
operations. The full report of the internal police investigation
has not been released because three officers are still awaiting
disciplinary hearings in relation to the Overtime incident.
crusnell@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2005
Judge opens records
on overtime sting
By SORCHA MCGINNIS, EDMONTON
SUN, Wed, August 31, 2005
A Court of Queen's Bench judge
has overturned an order sealing documents relating to the Overtime
bar investigation, aware it could leave the police officer involved
red-faced.
Yesterday, Justice Erik Lefsrud
repealed an order to seal the documents, including police radio-communications
transcripts of the controversial stakeout, after an application
was granted earlier by Const. Jim Smyth.
The transcripts show the officer
using what he calls "locker room talk" and include
the use of profanity and other words deemed offensive.
NO ROOKIE
"I recognize the embarrassment
he may have, but I am opening that sealing right now," said
Lefsrud, adding the officer was not "a rookie."
Smyth was present in court,
but declined comment through his lawyer, Robert Hladun.
The long-serving cop told the
Sun earlier that the language used in the tapes was "not
intended for public consumption" and that he understood
why some people might find it shocking.
At one point, an officer looking
to arrest Sun columnist Kerry Diotte makes reference to a "couple
faggy-looking guys ... Maybe one of them's him." The same
officer says the arresting cop "will never have to pay for
a drink as long as he lives."
The application stems from
Smyth's involvement in the Nov. 18 Overtime incident, which saw
police officers accused of staking out the downtown bar in an
improper bid to catch Diotte and former police commission chairman
Martin Ignasiak driving drunk.
Police launched an investigation,
and in April, Smyth was charged with discreditable conduct. He
now faces internal disciplinary proceedings.
In court yesterday, Hladun
argued to stop the proceedings, which are scheduled for Oct.
13.
Hladun says police broke their
own rules by taking longer than three months to charge him with
the Police Act offence.
He said those rules indicate
charges "must move along expeditiously" so that matters
such as this one aren't hanging over officers' heads.
But police lawyer Donald Wilson
believes Smyth was charged within the proper three-month window.
Wilson said a recommendation to charge Smyth was made in January
by Calgary deputy police chief Murray Stooke, who reviewed EPS
investigations into the Overtime incident.
CONCERNS
"We know the Edmonton
Police Service, the police commission and the City of Edmonton
did have concerns that someone independent review this matter,"
he said.
Documents supporting Smyth's
motion were also opened by the judge's decision.
Lefsrud reserved decision in
the matter, but is expected to return with a finding shortly.
Two other police officers -
Staff Sgt. Bill Newton and Insp. Bryan Boulanger - also face
disciplinary hearings this fall.
Constable uses double-jeopardy
defence
Asks judge to quash disciplinary hearing linked to Overtime affair
Charles Rusnell, The
Edmonton Journal, Wednesday, August 31, 2005
EDMONTON - A few days after
the controversial Overtime stakeout incident in November, Const.
Jim Smyth's two immediate supervisors formally counselled him
about the inappropriate language he had used on the police radio.
On Tuesday, Smyth's lawyer,
Robert Hladun, told a Court of Queen's Bench judge the counselling
was all the discipline Smyth required by law and any further
disciplinary action by the Edmonton Police Service would constitute
"double jeopardy."
This was one of the arguments
advanced by Hladun in a bid to have the court quash Smyth's disciplinary
hearing. The veteran traffic constable faces a charge of discreditable
conduct for using profane, vulgar and other inappropriate language
in a police radio broadcast.
Donald Wilson, the EPS lawyer,
dismissed Hladun's double-jeopardy argument.
Wilson told the court there was no record of any formal counselling
of Smyth by sergeants Glen Hayden and Conrad Moshansky. And even
if there was, such counselling does not supersede the chief's
authority to order a disciplinary hearing. If it did, there wouldn't
be any discipline, Wilson said.
"If you (an officer) do
something, you could get your supervisor to call you in for a
chat and you would be insulated from discipline -- think about
that," Wilson told Justice Eric Lefsrud.
Hladun also argued Smyth's
right to due process had been breached because the police service
failed to charge him within the three-month limit prescribed
by the service's own regulations.
Smyth contends he should have
been charged no later than Feb. 25, since he was notified of
an investigation into his involvement in the Overtime incident
on Nov. 25, 2004. Smyth wasn't charged until April 5 this year.
But Wilson pointed to documents
which showed there was an initial internal investigation of the
Overtime incident and based on that investigation, it was recommended
that a second investigation be conducted into Smyth's conduct
as it related to his use of the police radio. That second investigation
didn't begin until Jan. 31, 2005.
The internal disciplinary hearing
stems from a Nov. 18, 2004, police drunk-driving operation that
targeted then police commission chairman Martin Ignasiak and
Edmonton Sun columnist Kerry Diotte.
The two men were attending
a social gathering sponsored by the Canadian Association of Journalists
at the downtown Overtime Taproom and Grill.
Witnesses said neither men
were drunk and took cabs.
Lefsrud reserved his decision,
which he promised to deliver "promptly."
In another
related matter, Lefsrud lifted a sealing order on court documents
related to Smyth's application to quash his disciplinary hearing.
The sealing order was granted to Smyth by Court of Queen's Bench
Justice Paul Belzil last month in a private hearing in his chambers
with no notification to the media.
Journal lawyer Fred Kozak argued there are stringent rules for
the application of sealing orders. These rules are intended to
ensure the openness and transparency of the justice system and
have been upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in at least four
cases.
Kozak said
Belzil granted the application without evidence, without consideration
of the relevant legal test, and without notice to the media,
as required by law.
Hladun told
Lefsrud that courts have enjoyed the discretion of granting sealing
orders on a case-by-case basis. Lefsrud, however, cut Hladun's
argument short, saying he had "a number of problems with
this sealing order."
Lefsrud said Hladun should have notified the media before Belzil
heard the application.
"In all
cases the openness of the (justice) system must be protected,"
Lefsrud said.
crusnell@thejournal.canwest.com,
© The Edmonton Journal 2005
Excerpts from tape
during police stakeout
The Edmonton Journal, February
06, 2005
The following are excerpts
from a tape of police radio communications on the night of the
controversial stakeout at the Overtime Broiler and Taproom, obtained
by The Journal. T1 is Sun columnist Kerry Diotte; T2 is police
commissioner Martin Ignasiak. P is for police officers.
P1: Sorry, that was a little
confusing. What was it? The plan there?
P3: Well, when we're doing
the Overtime ... we're trying to get in a place and make the
observation ourself, of someone leaving the bar, or leaving the
lot of the bar, whatever the ones being targeted and then we
don't have to use them as witnesses ... we wouldn't have to use
you guys as witnesses -- just seen a car leaving the bar, pulled
him over as part of our TADD duties and lo and behold.
P1: Well, I think that's exactly
how it's going to pan out.
-
P1: You just want free drinks
for the rest of your life, that's all.
P3: Anything that's bought
is never anything that I drink anyways.
P1: Yeah I think the guy who
gets this target will never have to pay for a drink as long as
he lives.
-
P3: What's your opinion? I've
done three roadside tests since the training last spring. Would
it be better to have you do the roadside test and the other one?
P1: A guy with one eye and
half an a***** could do a roadside test.
P3: I'm just closing up the
holes. I can do it. I've done three of them. I know how to do
them. But wouldn't it be better to have the instructor do it?
P1: Negative. Don't even suggest
something like that. It brings the credibility of all of them
down.
-
P4: You call that work?
P3: I don't think he writes
any columns Fridays. If he did they had already been done anyways,
but I think he just writes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
P4: I heard they're cut and
pasted from the Internet.
P1: You know what -- I'd do
his job and I'd do it better than him. A f***** idiot can write
that up in about five minutes.
-
P4: Nobody is dressed like
he is anyway, so he will stick out. He's got a real bright royal
blue button-up shirt with a tie on and a sport jacket and his
shiny, shiny dome.
-
P1: A couple faggy looking
guys coming out now. Maybe one of them's him.
[The police can no longer locate
T1. They spot T2, and focus on him.]
-
P3: ... Who's T2 with?
P1: I don't know who he's with,
but I'm sure they're drinking buddies ... .
P3: OK, we will just check.
We're on the way to check T1's car, as in R1 [Diotte's residence],
and then we will get back. We will run a name here and see what
we can come up with. I don't know if maybe that's the right thing
to be doing right now but -- do we want anything on the system?
P1: Well, I know it can cause
a problem, but you know what? With the two eyes inside, we're
probably OK. When he gets up to leave, we'll just get them to
give us a phone call and tell us he's coming out of the door
now and we will just see which V [vehicle] he goes to. Yeah.
P1: We'll know before he hits
the door. As soon as he grabs a jacket or anything to put it
on, we'll get the call.
[T2 leaves the bar and hails
a cab]
-
P3: Oh well, we gave it the
good old college try.
P1: Well, I think we will be
able to tag T1 on another day, another time.
-
P1: Actually, you know I think
I want to go have a look by his house myself. I want to eyeball
it. Somehow it makes it easier to keep an eye on somebody when
you have that familiarity.
P3: You can't miss it. It's
got two pillars in front of his driveway with lions on them.
© The Edmonton Journal 2005
Excerpts from tape of conversations
police radio
The Edmonton Journal,
February 07, 2005
The following are excerpts
from a tape of radio transmissions on the night of Nov. 18, 2004,
obtained by The Journal. T1 is Edmonton Sun columnist Kerry Diotte,
T2 is police commissioner Martin Ignasiak and P stands for police
officer.
P4: I will go wandering through
there again.
P5: Okay, I will take your
spot. Might even follow up with Plan B if you know what I mean.
-- That was pretty fast.
P4: Yeah, he is still in there,
drinking beer and he has found a table to sit at so he found
some friends. People like that don't have friends. Maybe he is
buying the drinks.
---
P5: We got a lot invested in
this and maybe we will stick it out now until the end and see
what happens. We can make it up later.
P3: Oh, for sure -- no problem
justifying our time here.
P5: Yeah, I agree.
---
P1: I hope the information
that they have that he is leaving shortly is good.
P5: Yeah apparently it comes
in via an anonymous caller, so -- (laughing) -- inside job. How
is my cloak now, Glenn?
---
P3: Do you want to hear the
message? We just had it forwarded to us.
P3: FYI an anonymous caller
stated that target, his occupation, is extremely 10-18 (drunk)
at the O.T.(Overtime) downtown and will be driving home in a
dark-coloured vehicle. You know what that is, the make, parked
at the location. This is a regular occurrence for so-and-so,
the target, T1, and the caller is fed up with T1's hypocritical
editorials about drunk drivers and any police comments.
---
P3: Yeah, Smitty. We have been
talking here. I'm not comfortable at all doing this roadside.
P4: Might not need to.
P5: I'm kidding. I can't wait
to do the test.
P3: We better haul him up there,
you think -- or should we go to the closest one? -- He might
have a good lawyer!
P1: I'm getting a f****** chubby
(erection).
---
P5: Ian said the group that
he was with -- they're all gone. And he couldn't see him in the
bar proper, so he was going to go back and have a quick look
through the john, to see if he missed him in the pisser.
---
P3: Maybe ... if that's a negative
there, Conrad, have Ian check the Louisiana Purchase there next
door ... The Sidetrack might be a location too.
P5: A big zero in the first
location. A few of his cronies are still there, but he is not.
And it has thinned out almost to nothing.
P1: And he wasn't hurling in
the bathroom or anything?
P5: Negative. He cleared that.
P2: He is on his way to the
other locations.
---
P2: Yeah, two bodies just went
from the north of Overtime there, then they walked towards Sidetrack.
P1: OK, guys. T2 (Martin Ignasiuk)
is out front now. He is on a cellphone. He tried to flag down
a cab that drove by there, so it doesn't look like he is going
to get behind the wheel here.
© The Edmonton Journal 2005
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
